Church Reclaims Early Leaders Diary and Other Documents
SALT LAKE CITY - The LDS Church has reclaimed an early leader's diary and documents on some of its most sacred practices and rituals in an agreement with Utah State University. The university had received the materials from a church historian. The transfer resolved a dispute from early October, when Utah State University made Leonard J. Arrington's papers, notes, letters and documents available to researchers at the school in Logan, Utah. The church objected, laying claim to some of the papers, and a tenth of the collection was sequestered from public view. Arrington was a church historian from 1972 to 1982 whose 50-year collection was found to contain documents on highly secretive Mormon temple rituals and details about early church leaders in Utah in the mid-1800's. The collection also included records from church leadership meetings. Arrington also had a copy of the Book of Anointings, which describes the church's most sacred practices, family lawyer George Daines said.
Daily Gate City, December 15, 2001