Utah's State Bird and Flower
And a whole bunch of crickets
Utah’s state bird and state flower have something in common. Do you know what it is? Crickets.
No, I don’t mean “silence” I mean crickets. Rocky Mountain crickets to be exact. In 1848 there was a plague of crickets that threatened the Mormon Pioneers’ crops. It was only their second year in the Salt Lake Valley and their first full harvest season. But a killing frost in May of that year and a cricket infestation at the beginning of June threatened starvation. This was a time where it wasn’t easy or practical to simply “import” food. Items could only be imported by rail or horseback.
Read on to see how Utah’s state bird and state flower helped the pioneers stave off starvation.
Utah’s State Bird
Utah, known as the Beehive state, chose the California Gull (Larus californicus) as the state bird. On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1955, Gov. J. Bracken Lee signed into law House Bill 51 to make it Utah Code 63-13-9. Although seagulls are often thought to be shore birds, the California Gulls are common in inland areas in the west and they are prevalent around the Great Salt Lake.
The Great Cricket Invasion
In 1848, when the crickets descended upon the crops and threatened to eat them all, flocks of California Gulls saved the food source by eating the crickets. A pioneer named John Smith wrote that the birds appeared every day for about three weeks. "There must have been thousands of them. Their coming was like a great cloud," Smith wrote. "When they passed between us and the sun, a shadow covered the field. I could see gulls settling for more than a mile around us." It was also reported that the pioneers would find lumps of vomited crickets. The gulls gorged themselves to capacity, drank water, regurgitated and continued to feed. While the pioneers thought that they were regurgitating entire crickets, the gulls were regurgitating the indigestible parts of insects, similar to how an owl regurgitates pellets (bones, indigestible material). While this behavior seemed strange to the pioneers, it is normal for gulls. Anyhow, this earned the California Gull State Bird status and a shiny monument.
Monument to the State Bird
The Seagull Monument on Temple Square in Salt Lake City honors the gull. It’s a golden statue featuring two gulls, wings spread and perched on top of a 30-foot-tall granite column. The monument, which was sculpted by Mahonri MacKintosh Young (a grandson of Brigham Young), was unveiled in 1913. It carries the inscription: "Erected in grateful remembrance of the mercy of God to the Mormon pioneers."
The Little Red Spot on a Gull’s Bill
The California Gull has a bright red spot near the tip of its bottom bill. It’s not just for decoration. A Dutch scientist named Niko Tinbergen did a study mid-20th Century to see if there was a reason for this red spot. Tinbergen deduced that newly hatched gull chicks were fed by their parents only after they pecked at the adult’s bills. It is a crucial visual cue in a chick’s demand to be fed. This research helped begin Tinbergen’s work on animal behavior and, in 1973, he was awarded a Nobel Prize. The Little Red Spot on a Gull's Bill | BirdNote
Utah’s State Flower
Calochortus nuttallii, also known as the Sego Lily, is a bulbous (it’s roots are bulb-like) perennial plant that is endemic to the Western United States. The Sego Lily is a sacred plant in Native American culture. Sego is a Shoshonean word thought to mean “edible bulb.” The flower thrives in desert-like conditions and was adopted as the state flower of Utah on March 18, 1911, by the Utah State Legislature.
It was chosen because of the flower’s historical significance. As was mentioned before, there was a food shortage in the 1840’s (and 1850’s too), in part due to the massive invasion of crickets. During this time, parts of the sego lily were eaten. The pioneers learned about the nutritional value of the Sego Lily bulb from the Native Americans. Some bulbs were as large as walnuts, but most were the size of marbles.
Those early settlers who had staved off starvation by eating the bulb felt it set them apart from the newcomers to the Salt Lake Valley. For those pioneers, it became a source of pride to have been a “bulbeater”. They felt that to have suffered through hard times early in the colonization of Utah showed their tenacity and righteousness.
Elizabeth Huffaker who settled in Salt Lake City wrote in her pioneer journal ”In the spring of 1848, our food was gone. Along the month of April we noticed all the foothills were one glorious flower garden. The snow had gone, the ground was warm. We dug thousands of sego roots, for we heard that the Indians had lived on them for weeks and months. We relished them and carried them home in bucketfuls. How the children feasted on them, particularly when they were dried, for they tasted like butternuts.”
Until next time…
It’s so interesting to learn the history about things. Who knew that Utah’s symbols were all because of crickets.
Next time, we’ll look at New Mexico’s symbols. I’m sure a Wile E. Coyote and the Acme Company will figure in somehow. In the meantime, please subscribe to my newsletter and share it far and wide.