Holiness is in the heart of the beholder, of course. But it would be hard for the surliest skeptic not to feel the serenity at Adam-ondi-Ahman. The site lies about 70 miles north of Kansas City, tucked away from the world.

It's not easy to find.

And it's not easy to leave.

For members of the LDS faith, it was a sacred spot in ancient days and will be a gathering place in future times. When I-35 was built, the state routed it away from Adam-ondi-Ahman. The same with the Pottersburg dam.

As I stood on Tower Hill looking out across meadowlands there, I remembered a little story about the late President David O. McKay of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The story goes that when the LDS blue hymn book was ready for the presses, a copy was given to President McKay to look over. The hymn committee found him in his office, thumbing through the book. They asked if there was a problem.

"I'm looking for my favorite hymn," he said, " 'Adam-ondi-Ahman.' "

The hymn had been dropped from the new collection. They said they'd get back to him.

And that's why, in the blue hymnal, after the congregational songs and songs for men and women, the last hymn in the book has the word "congregational" beneath it. The committee slipped the hymn back into the book as it was going to press.

As a lover of poetry, President McKay enjoyed the language of the W.W. Phelps hymn. The last verse reads:

Hosanna to such days to come

The Savior's second coming,

When all the earth in glorious bloom

Affords the Saints a holy home,

Like Adam-ondi-Ahman.

When my father visited Adam-ondi-Ahman, he said the church had let it go to seed. I asked Peter Lassig, the church gardener at the time, about that.

"Tell your father thank you," he said. "That's how we want it to look. That's our garden."

The idea was to give the impression of organized "randomness." It was the way God tended to garden.

I'd also heard that farmers from the surrounding county brought unwanted stones and dumped them at Adam-ondi-Ahman. When Joseph Smith first came to the place, he found an altar of stones. Many visitors like to pick up a stone as a memento of their visit. The farmers saw it as a way to get rid of some stones and make visitors happy.

I asked a senior missionary in Liberty, Mo., if the story was true.

"It wouldn't surprise me," she said with a smile. "But then, nothing I hear about Adam-ondi-Ahman surprises me anymore."

I almost pressed her for more tales, but I decided I'd collected enough gossip and "folk tales" about Adam-ondi-Ahman for one trip.

And the hearsay may be one reason the LDS Church doesn't promote Adam-ondi-Ahman very much. My guess is leaders would rather have members focus on prayer and study rather than historical shrines and magical places. This column, in fact, may even make a few people feel uneasy.

If so, my apologies. I've always been a bit of a gossip. I have a hard time holding my tongue.

Ask my friends.

It's what attracted me to this business of writing columns in the first place.

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E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com