Over 150 people gathered to see the mounting of the statue of Maroni atop the new Mormon temple on August 26, 2015. I was invited to the installation after doing a story about the temple earlier in the year, and was flattered to be one of only a few media personnel invited to the event. Take a look at how it went!

The statue of Maroni, weighing 350 pounds, came in from Salt Lake City. They had many workers on the scene to protect the statue as it’s wrapped in 14 karat gold-leaf. You don’t want to scratch it! Once they got the statue out of the crate and hooked onto the crane, there were a lot of a photos taken-- all the workers were eager to get a shot next to Maroni.  Outside the fencing, church members and curious folks, like myself, shot lots of photos as well.  

The figure of Maroni is 7 feet tall; the ball which he stands on is 1.5 feet tall. So overall, the statue on top of the temple is 8.5 feet tall.

They had brought in a huge crane to get the job done.  The project manager told me that in many temples’ construction they use two giant cranes-- one to hoist the statue, one to hold men to keep an eye on it and guide the bottom into the temple.  With the Fort Collins construction, they had enough scaffolding set up that they didn’t need two cranes.

Once all the photos were done, they got to moving the statue of Maroni from the ground to the top of the temple. Two words: slow and easy. It took about 25-30 minutes to get the statue in place, with Maroni facing eastward, as is the custom on the majority of temples.  The crowd on the street erupted with applause once Maroni was situated!  I was curious, because the strap that the statue had been hanging on from the crane was then still drooped over the statue.  After a few minutes, a second lift up to the top began with two workers in charge of getting the strap.  The crowd had pretty much dispersed by the time the second trip went up; which I found odd, because it sure was bugging ME that that strap was still hanging there-- I wasn’t calling it ‘done’ until that strap was removed!

The Fort Collins LDS temple is a mid-size one, according to the project manager that I spoke with. He said that a large temple is upwards of 100,000 square feet (there are a couple of those in Utah). The Fort Collins temple and the Centennial, Colorado temple are both about 30,000 square feet. With the placement of Maroni atop the temple, the building is now officially 112 feet tall.

They are planning a big open house for the temple in the fall/winter of 2016.  At that time, they expect about 100,000 people to come take a look at the majestic building!

In the meantime, you can stop by and chat with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at their meeting house directly north of the temple at 6521 Carmichael Street to discuss the temple.

I look forward to seeing how the temple and its campus end up looking!

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