Seagulls Devour Crickets and Save the Saints from Famine in the Salt Lake Valley

In the spring and summer of 1849, Aroet Lucious Hale was struggling to raise a crop of wheat near what is now the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City. He had planted carefully, watered faithfully, and was watching the wheat grow when disaster struck:

'About the middle of June, I went to water my wheat and to my surprise it was covered with crickets. Myriads of big black crickets came down from the mountains and began to sweep away fields of grain. I lost the most of my little crop of wheat. The most of the barley grain near the city was saved by immense flocks of seagulls which came and devoured the crickets. This was considered a God send and many escaped what might have been a severe famine.'

Hale added a striking detail confirming the supernatural quality of the event: 'One thing singular, the oldest mountaineers and trappers said that they never saw a seagull until after the Mormons settled this country.'

A fine of five dollars was placed on the head of anyone who killed a seagull, in recognition of the birds' role as divinely sent deliverers. The seagull miracle is one of the most celebrated pioneer miracles and is commemorated today by the California Gull's status as the state bird of Utah.