Our Founder
Nauvoo Remembered was founded by Burke Tangren of Bountiful, UT in 1991. While visiting Nauvoo, he came across several pieces of stone from the original Nauvoo Temple. He felt inspired to create small pieces of jewelry with the stone so that others might have something to help remind them of the great sacrifice of the early saints.
The jewelry was very popular with his friends and family and Burke soon had people requesting necklaces and earrings faster than he could make them. In all honesty, he probably gave away more than he sold. His settings were also sold for several years in gifts shops in Nauvoo, Illinois. He continued to make the jewelry until late 2011 when his health no longer allowed him to do the meticulous work.
In the summer of 2014, my father and mentor Burke Tangren passed away. His was a labor of love, not profit. It is with great honor that I, Doug Tangren, continue with his work and offer this jewelry to all who feel inspired to own a small piece of history.
Nauvoo Remembered Today
While I know that realistically I will never have stone from all of the temples, I really would like to find as many as possible. There is a very special moment that I treasure when someone finds stone from their own temple in our shop and is able to make something amazing with it.
Like my father, I never imagined that I would one day become fascinated with temple stone and turning it into jewelry. While his love was the original Nauvoo temple, I became enthralled will all of the temples. Finding and collecting temple stones has become an obsession with each new find being a thing of great excitement in our home. Sure it is just a beautiful piece of stone but when placed in a jewelry setting it can become something very special and meaningful. It can be a reminder of wonderful events and experiences had in the temple.
Our Temple Stones
Each temple stone in the jewelry is cut by hand from blocks of stone that were once part of a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A thin slab is first cut from the stone. The desired dimension of the cabochon is carefully copied onto the stone and then cut to an approximate size. Once the smaller stone is mounted to a dobbing stick, it is carefully sanded with multiple grains of diamond sanding wheels and shaped into the correct size for the jewelry.
While the original Nauvoo Temple will always be the cornerstone of our business, we are also pleased to offer all of our settings in stone from other temples as well. We currently offer temple stone including the Salt Lake Temple as well as many other temple stones. See the shop section “Our Temple Stones” for the complete listing. If you or someone you know has stones from other temples, please contact us directly as we are always interested in expanding our selections.
Nauvoo Remembered In The News
Occasionally, our unique story is featured in the local newspapers where we do shows. We thought you might find them interesting.
