Seagull Monument
40°46′11″N 111°53′34″W / 40.76972°N 111.89278°W
Location | Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
---|---|
Type | Bronze sculpture |
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 (LDS Church) call the miracle of the gulls.
History
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. The harvest was saved when the pioneer farmers knelt in prayer, which prayers were answered 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.[1] 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. The top of the monument is a bronze statue of two insect-devouring seagulls cast by sculptor Mahonri M. Young, who designed the monument. Young studied in France, and was grandson of LDS leader Brigham Young. The monument was dedicated October 1, 1913, by LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith. The Seagull Monument is believed to be the first monument dedicated to birds.
The monument is featured in the 1940 film, Brigham Young.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Saal, Mark. "Not since the bingeing/purging of the gulls have we seen such a mighty miracle". standard.net. Ogden Standard-Examiner. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
External links
- Media related to Seagull Monument (Salt Lake City) at Wikimedia Commons
- An on-line tour of Temple Square from allaboutmormons.com
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Coordinates on Wikidata
- Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata
- All articles with unsourced statements
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021
- Articles with hAudio microformats
- Spoken articles
- Commons category link is on Wikidata
- 1913 sculptures
- Animal monuments
- Bronze sculptures in Utah
- Gulls in art
- Fictional seabirds
- Monuments and memorials in Utah
- Outdoor sculptures in Salt Lake City
- Sculptures of birds in the United States
- Temple Square
- All stub articles
- Latter Day Saint movement stubs
- Pages using the Kartographer extension