Mostly polygamous? Eagle Mountain says no

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — Folks who live in Eagle Mountain were surprised to read that "pretty much everyone " in their city is polygamous, as a recent article in the Chicago Tribune seemed to suggest.

The article, published Sunday, quoted two polygamous women who allegedly live in Eagle Mountain in polygamous relationships.

One of the women, who didn't give her last name, was quoted as saying, "Pretty much everyone who lives here is polygamous. There may be one or two houses that aren't, but virtually everyone else here is one of ours."

Other references to Eagle Mountain as a community where polygamous groups are happy and prosperous follow the woman's statements.

Eagle Mountain officials say the Chicago Tribune made a mistake in its report and inaccurately represented the 13,000-resident Utah County city.

"I would like to ask for a correction," said Eagle Mountain spokeswoman Linda Peterson. "Hopefully, they will be receptive to that."

Peterson said she'd heard the Chicago Tribune reporters had said that the story referred only to the subdivision where the polygamous women lived — not the whole city.

But Peterson said other references to Eagle Mountain in the article suggest otherwise.

The Chicago Tribune did not immediately return calls for comment.

Some residents of Eagle Mountain, a fast-growing community about 15 miles west of Lehi, say they know of several polygamous families who live in the city, but numbers are few.

"(Polygamists) are not the majority at all," said Eagle Mountain resident Mary Ackerman. "Somebody didn't do their homework — or they just wanted a good story."

Peterson said a polygamous group lived inside of the city limits nearly 10 years ago when the city was first being formed. At that time, the polygamous group made up a good fraction of the population, Peterson said.

Since then numbers have changed.

Peterson estimated less than 1 percent of Eagle Mountain's population is now polygamous, but she said there are no specific numbers.

"I think, just like a lot of cities in Utah, there are many, many cities that have polygamous groups living within city limits," Peterson said. "It's just kind of the nature of how things are in Utah."

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