The Seagull Monument is a small monument situated immediately in
front of the Salt Lake Assembly Hall on Temple Square, in Salt
Lake City, Utah. The Monument commemorates what some members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church,
see also "Mormons") call the Miracle of the Gulls. In 1848 the
Mormon pioneers planted crops for their first spring season in
Utah. As the crops ripened, Mormon crickets descended upon the
farms from the foothills east of the valley. The insects
consumed entire fields. According to traditional account, the
harvest was saved by flocks of native seagulls which devoured
the crickets. This event, popularly called the "Miracle of the
Gulls", is remembered by Latter-day Saints as a miracle. The
incident is somewhat controversial in nature with some
historians questioning the credibility of the account. To
celebrate the role seagulls played in the pioneer's first year
in Utah, the LDS Church erected Seagull Monument on their Temple
Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.