More than 2,000 church members died at Winter Quarters because of heavy storms, scurvy, malaria, and inadequate food and shelter.

During the groundbreaking ceremony on November 28, 1999, Truman Clawson, director of the local visitors' center, said, "Now today on this end of the hill, we will take shovels in our hands to dig not a grave but the foundation of a special building, a temple.

"[8] In preparation for the open house, church members and the community of Florence worked together creating handcrafted flowers for storefronts and decorating historic sites and markers with balloons.

[9] Members all over the United States and Canada watched via satellite broadcast as LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple on April 22, 2001.

During the dedicatory prayer, Hinckley recognized the sacrifice of the Saints and the great spiritual and historical significance of having a temple at Winter Quarters.

The bottom three panels depict a river, rolling hills, and wildflowers.”[6] The temple’s total floor area is 10,700 square feet.

The design uses elements representing Latter-day Saint history and Biblical symbolism, to provide deeper spiritual meaning to the temple's appearance and function.

For example, those in the baptistry feature quilt like patterns “to represent the pioneers who had to wrap the bodies of their loved ones in quilts before they buried them.”[14] The baptistry’s windows also depict a river, in reference to the river of life in Revelation 22:1-2; the river was formed with pulverized crystal, which is both a reference to the scriptural passage and an homage to “the early Church members who crushed their china and silver to mix with mortar in the walls of the Kirtland Temple to make it shimmer.”[14] The temple is both a place of worship and an architectural landmark in Florence, Nebraska.

[16] Following completion of the temple, the church held a public open house from March 30 to April 14, 2001 (excluding Sundays).