Ask almost any Manti resident, "What is the town's distinguishing feature?" and the answer is almost invariably: the north entrance.
The north entrance has the luminous LDS temple on its east side, the Manti House Inn, a restored building that housed temple construction workers more than a century ago, on its west side, and the Pioneer Monument, backed by a great grove of conifers, to the north.But what of the south side of the entrance block.
"It's shabby," a landscape architect said.
"It's a blighted area," says Jane Braithwaite, chairman of Manti's Destiny Committee.
And so the Destiny Committee, an organization of private citizens committed to civic improvement, is removing the blight. As a major phase of its enhancement program, the committee has purchased a motel, built in 1938 and outdated now, and a house and is negotiating the purchase of a second house, all on the blighted southwest quadrant of the entrance block.
The motel is being razed now, the second house will be removed after its purchase has been completed, and the first house, on the corner that fronts Main Street, will be converted to several uses: a repository for pioneer memorabilia; a facility providing access to films, tapes, documents and literature; and an information center for things both historic and current.
The area, about an acre total, will be appropriately landscaped with trees, shrubs and flower beds. A feature of the grounds will be a meditation garden - benches, perhaps a fountain and statuettes.
"Our purpose is the preservation of the pioneer story and its values and the enhancement of one of Manti's most significant areas," Braithwaite says. "It's an ongoing project privately funded."
Elliott Braithwaite, Destiny Committee treasurer, said the group has already raised and spent about $100,000 on the project. And the fund-raising campaign is continuing. It is being helped along by a brochure and a 30-minute video that tell of the pioneer experience in the Sanpete Valley.