Jesse Nathaniel Smith — Witnessing the Miracle of the Gulls

In 1848, as a thirteen-year-old pioneer in the Salt Lake Valley, Jesse Nathaniel Smith witnessed the providential arrival of seagulls during a devastating cricket infestation. He observed the gulls descending from the Great Salt Lake to devour the crickets that were destroying the settlers' first crops. He recorded that the birds would eat their fill, regurgitate the insects, and continue eating, which he interpreted as a divine intervention that saved the community from certain starvation.