by Annette Lyon

One hundred sixty years ago, in 1848, the year-old settlers of the Great Salt Lake valley came head-to-head in a battle to the death with some of the valley’s oldest settlers: voracious crickets, an insect often roasted by local Indians for their winter food supply.

The hungry insects proved a menacing force: had it not been for flocks of seagulls that miraculously came and devoured the crickets—which had been eating the settlers’ young crops—thousands of settlers and in-coming immigrants would have starved.

This year commemorates the 160th anniversary of that event: the Miracle of the Seagulls.

When the pioneers first arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847, their work was cut out for them. In order for their families to survive and prepare for the influx of more settlers (their numbers more than doubled over the following year), they had to work the land, and work it hard.
But the barren desert mocked the early farmers, who had no experience with such hard soil or desert irrigation techniques.

Jim Bridger, convinced of the worthlessness of the soil, reportedly offered a thousand dollars for the first ear of corn raised between Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake.

Apostle Wilford Woodruff reported that the ground was so hard that on the first day, they broke almost every plough. In an attempt to soften the earth, they watered it down, but then their teams sank in the mud, so they had to let the ground dry out before they could work it.

On top of everything else, the settlers were running out of food. Soon, rationing wasn’t enough, and many families resorted to digging up local vegetation to feed their children. Through it all, they counted on having an abundant crop come harvest time.

Before the weather turned too cold, they planted “winter wheat.” Fortunately the winter proved to be a mild and short one, which allowed several thousand acres of vegetables to be planted by spring. Despite the settlers’ hardships, the outlook by all standards seemed good.

Then April frosts hit, destroying part of the crop. With vast distances between them and any supplies, the upcoming harvest meant, quite literally, life or death. They could get by on what was left of their crop.

The last week of May, the settlers faced their greatest challenge yet: thick, black swarms of crickets descended on their crops and began to consume them. They were not true crickets, but rather a bug belonging to the katydid family. The so-called “Mormon crickets,” reportedly the size of a man’s thumb, were flightless with their tiny wings, and had voracious appetites.

For a month they leveled fields of wheat, vegetables, beans, melons, and other crops, while helpless farmers tried in vain to fight off the pests, which came by the “thousands of tons.” Sarah Rich wrote that they fought the crickets with noise, fire, water, ditches, and any other method they could think of. Nothing worked.

The only option left was prayer, and the settlers prayed with a vengeance. Many call what came next an answer to those prayers. Others say it was just coincidence that large flocks of seagulls arrived and gorged on crickets, flew to the Great Salt Lake, where they emptied their stomachs, and then returned for more crickets.

The first record of the seagulls’ arrival is in a letter addressed to Brigham Young, dated June 9, 1848: “The seagulls have come in large flocks from the lake and sweep the crickets as they go; it seems the hand of the Lord is in our favor.” For weeks, the seagulls continued their feasting and gorging in the fields.

B.H. Roberts said that just as it seemed as if the crickets would destroy everything, “large flocks of gulls came to the relief of the farmer, lighting down upon the fields and covering them up with a white sheet.”

By mid-June of 1848, three weeks after the seagulls’ first appearance, the crickets were gone. While acres of crops were lost, enough remained to feed the people. When the crickets returned the following spring, so did the seagulls, once again saving the lives of the settlers.

“The Cricket War” or, as it was later called, “The Miracle of the Gulls,” has impacted the state of Utah impressively. A fine of five dollars was levied on anyone killing a seagull. Later the seagull became Utah’s state bird, and in 1913, the Seagull Monument (believed to be the only monument honoring a bird), was erected.

Some people remain skeptical of any divine intervention in the situation. Ornithologists have pointed out that the seagulls of the story, native to California, frequent Utah as a summer habitat and feed on insects, so their appearance during 1848 and 1849 should not be construed as anything unusual.

However, many Latter-day Saints, with their belief that God uses natural means for miracles, still believe that the 1848 Miracle of the Gulls was just that, and the story continues to touch a spiritual chord.

They believe, as it says on the Seagull Monument, it was, “The mercy of God to the Mormon Pioneers.”