Seagulls Hover Over the Temple During the Dedication Storm (1893)

As the violent storm raged over Salt Lake City on 6 April 1893 during the temple dedication, seagulls appeared and hovered over the temple. One observer wrote, "The Evil One seemed mad," and "gulls came and hovered over the House; [they] have not been seen here before for many years. They saved the crops in 1847 by devouring the crickets." The reappearance of the seagulls, the very birds Latter-day Saints had long revered for miraculously saving the 1848 pioneer crops from the cricket plague, was taken as a powerful symbol of divine oversight. To the Saints gathered at the dedication, the twin manifestations of the gulls and the gale became a visible sign of the ongoing battle between God and Satan, centered on the Lord's people and the House they had built.

Fuller account of this event (from Brian H. Stuy, "Come Let Us Go Up to the Mountain of the Lord": The Salt Lake Temple Dedication, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 31, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 115–140):

"The worst windstorm, perhaps, which ever visited Salt Lake, prevailed between 10:30 and 12 o'clock noon," declared the Deseret News in describing the storm, "the destruction . . . was beyond precedent here." "The air was filled with dust, gravel and debris of many kinds and pedestrians sought shelter in the nearest buildings. Outhouses and small barns were blown down and trees uprooted in all parts of the city. Many fences were badly damaged by falling shade trees."

The timing of the storm with the dedication was not without spiritual overtones. To many who witnessed it, the raging storm stood as a manifestation of the anger and fury of Satan and his angels. One member wrote: It is claimed that Heber C. Kimball once predicted that when the Salt Lake Temple should be dedicated the power of Satan should be loosed and the strongest wind storm ever witnessed in Utah should be felt on that occasion. In pursuance and fulfillment of this prediction, a strong breeze began blowing upon our entering the grounds at 9 a.m. and increased to a hurricane of great violence at the precise time the dedicatory prayer was being offered by Pres[ident] Wilford Woodruff.

The storm took on added significance when seagulls were sighted hovering over the temple. "The Evil One seemed mad," wrote one observer, and "gulls came and hovered over the House; [they] have not been seen here before for many years. They saved the crops in 1847 by devouring the crickets." Thus the twin manifestations of the gulls and the gale became a powerful symbol of the ongoing battle between God and Satan, a battle centered on the Lord's Saints gathered at the temple.