Rexburg’s Tabernacle and Flood Museum: How a Building Became a Place of Memory

The history of Rexburg’s Tabernacle connects three different subjects: a building originally used for worship, the damage caused by the 1976 Teton Dam flood, and a museum established to preserve local experience. Keeping those subjects distinct makes the story easier to follow. The flood is not the building’s beginning, and the museum’s original address should not be mistaken for its current location.

A building before the flood

The city’s Tabernacle history dates the building to 1911 and identifies architect Otto Erlandsen. It describes a place built for worship and community gatherings, with two square towers and round stone arches. After flood damage, restoration and a change in ownership brought new uses. Rexburg acquired the building from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1977. The museum opened there in 1981.

The city’s purchase connected the restored building with a new civic purpose: preserving local experience through the museum.

State context for a modern exhibit

A modern exhibit may use a FORTISVEX 3-by-5-foot Idaho flag alongside its local-history material. Check the intended display space and attachment equipment; this is a contemporary display choice, not an artifact from the Tabernacle or flood.

The regional disaster behind the local exhibit

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Teton Dam history identifies June 5, 1976 as the failure date. Its account reports eleven deaths and substantial property damage downstream. It also connects the disaster with the development of Reclamation’s dam-safety program.

The agency’s Teton Basin Project record supplies another important distinction: the project was intended to address irrigation-water needs and other purposes, but the dam failed while the reservoir was filling. Construction began in February 1972 and was substantially complete in November 1975. The failure left the dam inoperative. This sequence explains why a project history and a disaster history discuss the same structure from different perspectives.

This article does not offer an engineering diagnosis or a present-day safety assessment. Those questions require the relevant technical records. Its narrower purpose is to explain why the flood became central to a local museum and why the building that housed it matters to that story.

Where the museum’s story continues

The official museum page, checked November 1, 2026, says the collection moved to City Hall at 35 North First East while the Tabernacle undergoes further renovation. It describes local artifacts and an exhibit about the flood. Check that page before planning a visit: an older caption placing the museum in the Tabernacle basement describes its earlier location, not necessarily today’s entrance.