By Scott Taylor

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has identified the location of the Montpelier Idaho Temple, less than seven weeks after the new temple for southeastern Idaho was announced by President Russell M. Nelson.

The temple will be built on a 2.6-acre site at the intersection of Washington and North 6th streets in Montpelier, with the two-story structure planned to be about 27,000 square feet.

President Nelson announced a temple for Montpelier in April 2022 general conference, one of 17 temple locations he identified at the time.

A map of the location was published Friday, May 20, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. An exterior rendering and additional details will be provided later.

Montpelier’s city hall previously sat on the temple site but was torn down in March 2021. Several small homes elsewhere on the property have been recently moved.

Across 6th North to the west is the Montpelier Tabernacle, a 1,200-seat semicircular building constructed in 1917 with art deco, prairie and neoclassical architectural styles, which was renovated just prior to its centennial commemoration.

Once a stop on the old Oregon Trail, Montpelier is the largest community in the Bear River Valley, near where the borders of Idaho, Wyoming and Utah meet. The town was settled in 1864 by Latter-day Saint pioneers led by Apostle Charles C. Rich, with Brigham Young later giving it its current name, the same as the capital city of his birth state of Vermont.

With a population of less than 3,000 residents, the town is 10 miles west of the Idaho-Wyoming border. Located just north of Bear Lake, the town is 22 miles north of the Idaho-Utah border.

Idaho has eight other temples in operation, under construction or announced. Dedication temples are found in Boise, Idaho Falls, Meridian, Pocatello, Rexburg and Twin Falls. A groundbreaking early next month is planned for an announced temple in Burley, with a second Rexburg temple in the planning stages.

There are more than 15,000 Latter-day Saints in the proposed temple district, which includes congregations in Idaho and neighboring Utah and Wyoming.