A Violent Storm Dispersed 300 Armed Mobbers Advancing on Zion's Camp at Fishing River

In June 1834, Joseph Smith led Zion's Camp — a group of approximately 200 men marching from Kirtland, Ohio to Missouri to assist the expelled Saints of Jackson County. As the camp approached the Fishing River in Clay County, Missouri, a mob of more than 300 armed men assembled to destroy them.

The mob's leader, a man named Campbell, boasted openly: 'We will be damned if we don't kill every one of you before two days are passed.'

That evening, as the mob closed in, the camp crossed the river and camped on its bank. Suddenly, a violent storm of extraordinary power struck — one of the most severe storms in living memory in that region. Thunder, lightning, hail, and rain descended with such ferocity that the mob was completely scattered and unable to advance.

Joseph Smith recorded in the History of the Church: 'The Lord sent a small whirlwind and a hail storm that struck the mob with such terror that they fled in all directions. The storm raised the Fishing River forty feet in one night, completely blocking their path. Not one man of our camp was seriously hurt.'

The river rose so rapidly that the mob could not cross. Their ammunition was drenched and useless. Trees were torn up by their roots. The next day the mob's survivors reported they had spent the night in terror, believing they were being destroyed by a supernatural power.

The revelation now recorded as Doctrine and Covenants Section 105 was received on June 22, 1834 shortly after this event, explaining the Lord's purposes in the Camp's mission.

Wilford Woodruff, who was present, later testified: 'The Lord delivered Zion's Camp from their enemies on the 19th of June, 1834, by piling up the waters in Fishing River forty feet in one night.' It remains one of the most dramatic acts of divine weather intervention recorded in Church history.