President Joseph F. Smith's Witness of the Miracle of the Seagulls

President Joseph F. Smith recounts the 1849 plague of crickets that destroyed the crops of the 1,800 people in the Salt Lake Valley. After all human efforts to stop the crickets failed and prayers were offered, gulls appeared, devoured the crickets, and then regurgitated them in piles, allowing them to eat more until the crops were saved.

In his own reflections toward the end of his life, President Joseph F. Smith testified that the pioneers were "literally preserved from starvation by the welcome visits and persistent efforts in the destruction of the devouring hordes by these beautiful winged saviors, which we esteemed as the providence of God."

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

In the spring of 1849, the crickets began their ravages by devouring our grain and destroying our crops. We adopted every conceivable method known to us to exterminate them, but it was of no avail. We were helpless. We could not stop them. We were in a position where we were absolutely dependent upon the Lord. We had done all that we could do, and we were in a condition of helplessness. Then, suddenly, the air was filled with seagulls that came to the fields and devoured the crickets with voracious appetites. These gulls would gorge themselves to their capacity and then go to the streams, where they drank and then disgorged the crickets in piles as big as my fists. They would then return to the fields and continue their work of destruction upon the crickets until the crops were saved. We were literally preserved from starvation by the welcome visits and persistent efforts in the destruction of the devouring hordes by these beautiful winged saviors, which we esteemed as the providence of God.