Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City, UT

The Mormons settled in Utah in 1848.  Salt Lake City is home to the headquarters for the Church of Latter-day Saints, which is in Temple Square.  SLC is on a grid system and the center of the grid is Temple Square.  Here's a picture of the Assembly Hall, the congregation area for the church.

During the first spring season that the Mormons were in Utah, a plague of Mormon crickets (katydids) swarmed the crops.  The katydids would eat the crops and then eat any katydids left on the plants in an act of cannibalism that horrified the Mormons.  The crops were disappearing; 4,000 Mormons were facing starvation.  

In June, seagulls came and rescued the crops by eating all the katydids.  The crops were saved and the Mormons were spared!

The incident is called "The Miracle of the Gulls" and the California gulls are Utah's state birds.  To commemorate the miracle, Temple Square has a Seagull Monument.  

The monument has a plaque that states:  "Seagull monument erected in grateful remembrance of the mercy of God to the Mormon pioneers."

Temple Square is really beautiful; I recommend visiting.  The square is huge and you can see the buildings from other parts of the city because they're so tall.

I was trying to be artistic with the picture above.  All the cranes in SLC have an American flag attached, so I captured the flag in between the towers (it's very small in the picture).