After
a long process across North America, the site for the Nauvoo Temple stone
supply has been made. The stone will come from the Vetter,s Alabama Limestone
Company in Russellville, Alabama. From there it will be cut into blocks
the size of an automobile and then shipped to various locations in the
US and Canada for sizing and carving. Due to the intricacies of carving
the large face stones, there will be more than one carving company involved,
and both robotics and hand carving will be utilized. Molds have been made
by 3 D Art inc. for the carving of the sun, moon and star stones. The largest
stone the "sunstone" weighs about 2 and 1/2 tons and carving has begun
in Bedford, Indiana. A major portion of the limestone will be shipped to
Idaho Travertine inc. in Idaho Falls for dimensioning and then shipped
to State Stone Company in Utah for the hand design work to be done on the
field stone.
The
Stone will be attached to stainless steel 8' tall frames and then anchored
to the concrete walls of the temple. This will allow easy replacement of
damaged stone, in the future instead of having to patch it.
Stone installation should start sometime the end of the year.