Manti has long had two nicknames: Temple City, in deference to its architectural masterpiece, and Christmas Tree Town, a seasonal bow to its many evergreen trees, which had their beginnings as seedlings brought down from the mountains more than a century ago.
Now Manti is acquiring, in promotional literature, a new nickname: Bed and Breakfast Village, because it has five such businesses that cater largely to the tourist trade.Joe Blain, Sanpete County's economic development director, thinks the bed and breakfasts, relatively new on the scene, are an economic good because they use existing facilities, provide employment and help meet the needs of a mobile population.
In fact, he believes they're a significant element in a growth industry that has a promising future along U.S. 89, now being advertised as the Scenic Route and sometimes as the Country Western Corridor because so many of its towns retain their Old West atmosphere.
Manti has an advantage in the campaign for tourist dollars, Blain says, partly because the Manti Temple brings wedding parties to town and partly because of its pioneer history, its surviving sandstone buildings and, in many ways, its old-time lifestyle.
"We're still in several ways another Williamsburg," a local historian wrote.
That pioneer village aspect is expressed most visibly in three of Manti's five bed and breakfasts. Their basic structures are pioneer stone buildings that have had major modifications to enable them to play their new roles.
The Old Grist Mill Inn - the second mill in town - was gutted by fire in an Indian raid, rebuilt in time as the home for a large family and, only recently, given bed and breakfast status.
The inn is located east of town, along a creek, and guests say they like it for its remoteness, the music of the close-by stream and the birds, the jack rabbits and the deer that hang around.
The Brigham House Inn - also built of stone from a nearby quarry - is noted for its many pioneer artifacts and its unique breakfast servings. Helen Thurston, the operator, grew up in Australia and her after-dawn meals feature some of that continent's favorite breads and meats. She'll have none of that fruit juice, roll and hard-boiled egg breakfasts, she promises.
The Manti House Inn, across from the temple, was a boarding house a hundred and more years ago for the workers building the temple. Both buildings obtained their stone from the same quarry, block by block.
In recent years the old boarding house became a derelict, but then Jim and Sonja Burbidge came to town after a three-state search for a historic building they could transform into their dream inn.
"Manti's main asset," Jim Burbidge likes to say, "is its history." The result of their efforts: a combination of the historic in furniture and other artifacts, and the new, like hot tubs.
The Yardley Inn, not as old by a half-century as the stone bed and breakfasts, was built of brick manufactured at a brickyard south of town, by a railroader as the elegant setting for his talented family.
The inn retains much of that elegance in its chandeliers, stairways and furnishings. "For some of our guests," Gil Yardley says, "staying with us for a night or two is a mini-vacation. A break from the old routine. They're often repeaters."
Alvin and Mattie Kelner built their new and very modern Heritage House from scratch on a vacant lot a couple of years ago. For them it's both a home and a business, providing supplemental income to his regular job. "We try to provide what we like to think is a home away from home," Mattie Kelner says. "Not feather ticks and old furniture, but comfort and relaxations."
The bed and breakfast operators rely on word-of-mouth, advertising and promotional gimmicks to win their guests. And Blain says Sanpete Economic Development has an ongoing campaign, using road signs, brochures, ads and posters to keep the tourists coming.
"We know we can't lure a manufacturer with a $5 million payroll to move our way," Blain says, "but we can offer something else: peace, heritage and fresh trout pan fried or broiled for breakfast."