Seagull Monument - Salt Lake City, UT
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bluesnote
N 40° 46.185 W 111° 53.571
12T E 424648 N 4513581
A large monument, dedicated to seagulls.
Waymark Code: WMX5KV
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 11/30/2017
Views: 7
Taken from Wikipedia, "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. 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 California gull is now the Utah State bird."
Taken from the Guidebook, "K. The SEAGULL MONUMENT, east of the Assembly Hall, surrounded by granite-rimmed pool, is a memorial to the gulls for saving crops of the pioneers during the cricket invasion of 1848. Mounted on a square granite base is a sixteen-foot Doric column, surmounted by a sphere upon which two gilded seagulls are alighting. Four excellent high-relief bronzes decorate the sides of the square bas. The north plaque gives the name of the monument and shows two gulls in a fight. That on the cast presents a pioneer camp scene, with the head of an ox extending around the corner of the granite-a pleasing bit of sculpted unorthodoxy. The south plaque shows the advent of the gulls, and that on the west shows the subsequent harvest. The plaques are consider by many to constitute the best work of the Utah-born sculptor, Mahonri Young, you designed the memorial" -- Utah: A Guide to the State
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