Homer Duncan's Miracle of Three Wheat Crops
Published October 13, 2026 at 6:02 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
Homer Duncan, a pioneer who arrived in Salt Lake Valley in 1848, planted a bushel of Black Sea wheat. When crickets devastated the valley, he felt his crop was lost, but he witnessed a flock of gulls miraculously descend to eat the crickets until the fields were cleared. Encouraged by this divine intervention, he irrigated the wheat stubble, which grew and ripened again, eventually allowing him to harvest three crops from the single sowing in one season, totaling thirty-six bushels of wheat.
Fuller account of this event (the complete account as preserved in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 66, No. 41, 13 October 1904, page 647):
Homer Duncan, who arrived in the valley in 1848, planted a bushel of Black Sea wheat. The crickets came and destroyed it, but the gulls came and ate the crickets. He then irrigated the stubble, and it grew up and ripened, and he harvested thirty-six bushels of wheat from that one sowing.
In Their Own Words
“Encouraged by what he had witnessed, which he believed to be a manifestation of divine providence, the thought occourred to him to turn the water upon the wheat stubble. This he did, and the wheat grew again, and this time it ripened, and he harvested eighteen bushels of grain. He said that he again irrigated the stubble, which again grew and matured wheat, from which he harvested twelve bushels. And again, he said, he irrigated the stubble, and again he harvested six bushels, making three crops the same season from one sowing, and realizing thirty-six bushels of wheat from the one bushel planted. — Millennial Star 66:41”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 13 October 1904 (Vol. 66, No. 41). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1904-10-13_66_41 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Complete account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 66, No. 41, 13 October 1904, page 647 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1904-10-13_66_41
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