Marriner Wood Merrill — Preservation at the Platte River

While traveling to Utah in 1853, Marriner Wood Merrill attempted to swim the Platte River to recover cattle. He lost his strength in the current and began to drown. He reported that he was suddenly stabilized on a sandbar, allowing him to stand until a fellow traveler arrived to assist him, at which point the sandbar disappeared.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Jenson, Andrew. "Merrill, Marriner Wood." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 3. pg. 764.):

That God’s power preserved him for an instrument in the upbuilding of Zion is shown in the miraculous preservation of his life from drowning in the Platte River, while enroute to the west. Seeing some cattle which they sought on the opposite bank of the river, he and another boy plunged into the stream intending to swim across. As he was swimming the Platte River in an attempt to recover some cattle, he lost his strength in the heavy current and went down several times. Just at the point of drowning, he found himself stabilized on a sandbar; he stood there until a fellow traveler came to his rescue, when suddenly the sandbar was gone. The two men managed to make it safely to shore, and Marriner felt very strongly that the Lord had preserved his life for a purpose.