The Polygamy Team

July 12, 2007

There is so much I need to write about covering polygamy. So many people, stories, experiences, and challenges.

It’s been two years now since I started covering the polygamists of Utah and the West with Tribune staff writer Brooke Adams. It’s been a very rewarding partnership, like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my 19 year career.  We make a great team.

Aside from her reporting and writing skills, Brooke somehow keeps track of an unending cast of characters. (For example, we met a woman the other day who was related to her grandmother through three separate branches of the family tree.)

I bring the cameras and make observations, as well computer and tech skills. As a team, our standards are very high.

Brooke is the only full-time polygamy writer in, what, the world? She sets the pace and seems to never stop working. Her sources keep her cel phone ringing constantly. In the field, we start early and end late, working in remote environments where expense accounts go nowhere. And the day’s not over until I’ve finished a cheesecake or hot fudge sundae at the end of a late dinner.

I’ve learned so much about reporting in this time, sitting in on interview after interview. Some on the record, some off the record, some to never be mentioned. We’re covering people living an illegal lifestyle, and we also covering a closed, secretive community (the FLDS - Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). It’s been quite the adventure.

It would be wrong to not mention my predecessor on the polygamy beat photo-wise. I look at Leah Hogsten’s work, especially her 2001 essay on Tom Green’s family, as my goal for excellence.

Consider this the first of a few polygamy posts. I’ll start writing the next one immediately.

Posted by trent | Filed Under On Assignment, Polygamy, Trent 

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Comments

One Comment to “The Polygamy Team”

  1. Buck Buchan on July 24th, 2007 7:34 pm

    I started research the practice of polygamy in the US about 1998. Then I used my research to write a novel, Collector of Broken Wives, published by AuthorHouse 4/11/07. What I have found in my continuing research of the lifestyle (actually polygyny, one man more than on wife) is that it has long ago broken out of the geographical boundry of Utah and/or Arizona (even Idaho) and the spiritual boundries of the Morman Church. I doubt that there is a state in our nation where it is not practiced. Have you checked out http://www.truthbearer.org? They are fundamental Christian, and located in Maine!

    Most of the families I contacted live in California. So, my novel is set in Sacramento in the years 1989 through 2002. Among the families I contacted I found several that that had been polygamous more than thirty years.

    If you want to get a clear picture of polygamy in America (polygyny) I would suggest starting on the web, keywords “polygamous families” “polygyny” . Then get into some of their forums, chat rooms, etc. , and ask for interviews.

    Buck

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