It may have come as a surprise to Chicago readers that most Eagle Mountain residents were polygamists. It certainly did to the residents of Eagle Mountain.

A Chicago Tribune article, which appeared on Sept. 24, began with a lead set in Eagle Mountain. It said that polygamists "point to such communities as Eagle Mountain and Rocky Ridge, where polygamous families appear to be happy and prosperous." It also included paragraphs such as, "But beneath the all-American veneer, much is different in this upscale subdivision 40 miles south of Salt Lake City," and quoted an Eagle Mountain resident as saying, "Pretty much everyone who lives here is polygamous."

"That is not true. That is not even close to being true," said Linda Peterson, community relations coordinator for Eagle Mountain. Peterson, who has been contacted by several media outlets for comments on the story, said she estimated the percentage of residents who practiced polygamy as less than 1 percent. But she said the residents of Eagle Mountain were taking their new publicity with a sense of humor.

"I think if you talked to residents in Eagle Mountain, I think most of the reaction is surprise," Peterson said. But she said it seemed the story had not created much of a stir in the community so far.

"It's just funny how things can be distorted this way sometimes," she said.

Debbie Hooge, former mayor of Eagle Mountain, agreed.

"It's almost like the report is eight years behind the times," she said.

When the town started out, there were about five polygamous families, Hooge said. She said she doubted that number had grown much in recent years, since the polygamists tended to keep to themselves to avoid persecution. But she said that frankly it did not matter much to her.

"The (polygamists) I knew were very kind and very nice and wanted to keep their lives to themselves," Hooge said.

Peterson said she was disappointed at the article, and was trying to contact the Chicago Tribune to get their side of the story. She said she did not think the Tribune was purposely targeting Eagle Mountain. The misinformation, she said, probably stemmed from the fact that the Tribune reporters were from out of state and were not familiar with the area.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B10.