Yesterday DH and I were watching a science channel show about the history of cricket plagues in the Western United States. And DH said "Didn't you tell me that the seagull "miracle" didn't really happen?" I replied "Yes, I got that from a Mormon source too ... that the cricket infestation was historical fact but the idea of seagulls eating crickets then throwing them up and eating more until they were gone was a story that originated in about 1870 as a faith-building rumor. None of the early Saints mentioned it in their teachings or journals."

Then Susan Easton Black got on and told the whole seagull myth on the science channel like it was scientific fact. The more objective guy that followed her said something like "Well, it is normal for seagulls to eat crickets so, while that probably wasn't the only factor that saved the pioneer crops, it probably contributed to it." You could tell that he was trying to be respectful of Susan Easton Black's "miracle" and he didn't say anything to debunk it. Nor did he know that historically, this is a late-comer story rather than a contemporary one. And we know Black is a major player in the church's pocket. But DH became all smug, as if he'd proved to me that you can't believe everything you hear and now, on the science channel of all places, his Mormon beliefs were being validated. He's going to doubt every historical tidbit I share with him if I can't come up with some better information. How can I find out what the real story is?

You can find it here.

Mormons Crickets & Gulls: A New Look To An Old Story by William G. Hartley

One place you can find it is - New Mormon History edited by D. Michael Quinn

Basically
1. The gulls were not strangers to the valley. Records before and since show the various types of gulls, including the California gull in 1848, regularly inhabit the Great Salt Lake area. These birds are natural enemies of various insects, including the crickets.

2. Gulls habitually regurgitate the indigestible parts of the insects they have swallowed.

3. Gulls did not arrive until after severe cricket damage had already occurred. Even after the gulls had been “feasting” on crickets for two weeks, the insects were “quite numerous and busy eating.”

4. In 1848 Mormon crops were seriously damaged by three enemies—frost, crickets, and drought—and the gulls dealt with only one of these.

5. The “miraculousness” of the event was not clearly recognized by contemporaries. The Mormon church’s First Presidency was notably silent concerning the “Miracle of the Gulls” in its letters. Likewise the Milennial Star never told the English Saints about such a miracle. Diarists who detailed the cricket advance did not mention the gulls.

6. Since 1848 gulls frequently have been on the wing to feast on crickets and other insects, making the 1848 encounter hardly unique.

I always enjoyed both of your posts.

TG

How shocking is that hungry gulls would flood the SL Valley when they see a feast awaiting them? It's like the miracle of the wolves descending on an overabundance of deer, or the miracle of the cats gorging themselves on rats.

I think these are the important points to share with any TBM's that have their testimonies rooted in pioneer mythology:

3. Gulls did not arrive until after severe cricket damage had already occurred. Even after the gulls had been “feasting” on crickets for two weeks, the insects were “quite numerous and busy eating.”

4. In 1848 Mormon crops were seriously damaged by three enemies—frost, crickets, and drought—and the gulls dealt with only one of these.

The gulls did NOT save the pioneer's crops, so there was no "miracle".

You could show your TBM spouse this Ensign article:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1982/10/utahs-first-thanksgiving?lang=eng

It makes it pretty clear that almost all of the crops were destroyed before the locusts came. The pioneers had to replant after the locusts died off.

It's called nature and has is only seen as a specific miracle from God for his faithful Mormon followers by those faithful Mormon followers themselves. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.


http://www.lds-mormon.com/seagulls.shtml

Chapter 8 of New Mormon History is entitled: "Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls: a New Look at an Old Story" by William G. Hartley

In this heavily referenced essay, Hartley (a BYU professor of history and church history) makes the following points:

1) The gulls were not strangers to the valley. They are natural enemies to various insects including crickets.
2) Gulls habitually regurgitate the indigestible parts of insects they have swallowed.
3) Gulls did not arrive until after severe cricket damage had already occurred in 1848.
4) In 1848, Mormon crops were seriously damaged by three enemies--frost, crickets, and drought. The Gulls dealt with only one problem and too late at that.
5) The "miraculousness" of the event was not clearly recognized by contemporaries (including newspapers, diaries, and official church correspondence).
6) Since 1848, gulls frequently have been on the wing to feast on crickets and other insects, making the 1848 encounter hardly unique.


http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon060.htm

"In the first year of the Mormon settlement in Utah, a plague of locusts (Mormon crickets) threatened to wipe out their crops. God responded with a "miracle", sending an army of seagulls to devour the insects.
This one is true -- however the miracle part is somewhat embellished. The locusts have a seven-year hibernation cycle, and unfortunately the early settlers hit it on the end of the seventh year. For mutual protection, they had made the mistake of planting all their fields together. Therefore, the locust attack was concentrated in one spot in the valley. And the seagulls, which by their fossil remains have been at the Great Salt Lake for over 2,000 years, simply enjoyed their every-seven-year feast. They still do -- only now it's spread over thousands of square miles. (2001 was a bad year, 2008 is next)."


And this from 2009:
http://www.abc4.com/mostpopular/story/Mormon-Miracle-II-Did-seagulls-save-Tooele-County/qeS_gEGvWUS9XBMKbEWydA.cspx

The last line say it all.
"The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food said that this happens naturally from time to time."

What are the odds?

Timothy

Is there anything a seagull WILL NOT eat?

Seagulls are the Carp of the bird world

As I've heard it, if you put a brick and a dressed seagull into the oven, together, at the same time, the brick will cook faster, be softer, and more tasteful than the brick.

We used to go to the Great Salt Lake with my grandma as kids. My brother got his tuna sandwich snatched out of his hand from a hungry gull. The other gulls swarmed to see if there were more sandwiches for the taking.

I always thought the crickets sacrificed themselves to keep the gulls from eating the crops. A miracle!

I see gulls occasionally over in W. Colorado. Guess they must be looking for Mormons to save, eh?

Reminds me of something my friend did. He sent a txt to a # that
"answers all of your questions". And he asked: Why are there seagulls in Colorado.

Replied: "Seagulls are attracted to large bodies of water."

There AREN'T large bodies of water in S. Colorado!

There are gulls at various locations throughout the west. The just love the trash dumps and Navajo lake here in NW New Mexico and SW Colorado.

when they came to utah, crickets were eating thier crops and then a bunch of seagulls came and saved them

^^ This is the post that resurrected this old thread.

A semi-literate TBM to feed us the faith-promoting Primary version.

LOL at TBMs

Laughing at TBMs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ^^ This is the post that resurrected this old
> thread.
>
> A semi-literate TBM to feed us the faith-promoting
> Primary version.
>
> LOL at TBMs

This could well be someone who is still some years away from achieving legal adulthood, and---if so---"the faith-promoting Primary version" may be the only version of this story that they know.

Seagulls? It's a good thing mormon pioneers didn't grow french fries.

jack Mormon,, seagull that won't eat crickets,,

We had a flock of Seagal movies on one of our local movie channels. Not much of a miracle.

I think it was Will Bagley who wrote about subsequent early years in the Salt Lake valley, like the early 1850s, when the depredation of the crickets was such that the saints were on very strict rationing; things really got dicey. They were doing just like the Irish during the potato famine, eating grass, twigs, grubs...

The sea gulls did not perform their miracles during those subsequent years, but there are no stories about what a blessing it was to be tried to such an extent by their merciful, loving ghawd.

I found the citation for Will Bagley's scholarship. I'd posted it earlier here on RfM, from another post on another site.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1682884,1682944#msg-1682944

Check this out! You'd think a prophet would have known when the Lord was sending food! The Boner

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/15/340653853/startups-pitch-cricket-flour-as-the-best-protein-you-could-eat

IN on cricket thread ~










wait ~

wut is this thread about ?

It's about getting to Emerald City and getting the Wizard to give us what we need!

I'm hoping to get a color monitor!

So birds eating bugs is a Mormon miracle? Seriously?

The way it was told to me in Junior SS was that the gulls showed up, ate every last fucking cricket, the crop was saved and all was well in GAWDS valley. I shoulda known it was a load of horseshit.

RB

The irony here lies in the fact that Mormon crickets (actually a species of katydid) are flightless--all the pioneers had to do to keep them out of their fields was put up solid barriers to divert them around the crops. Two Montana state entomologists recommended at least 10" in a 1938 study.

I guess the seagull bullshit is more dramatic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2016 12:30AM by Anziano Young.

I am stunned. stunned and hurt. That my teachers told this story with such enthusiasm. They were smart. I looked up to them. and they lied. such disappointment that I feel.