Postcard from Whitingham

Famous polygamist Brigham Young came into the world here. He led the Mormons from Illinois to Utah, adding wives as he went, until he had 27. When he got to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, he said “This is the place,” and stayed. But Vermont has not forgotten him. A hundred years ago, a local farmer took a buggy ride with his wife. When they returned, someone had placed a large stone marker twenty feet from their house, which still says today: BRIGHAM YOUNG BORN ON THIS SPOT 1801 A MAN OF MUCH COURAGE AND SUPERB EQUIPMENT.

A grand old paddleboat, combustion powered, takes tourists out on the reservoir, which winds its way a dozen miles through the mountains. A nude beach, next to a gay nude beach, neither of which are beaches but short rock cliffs that angle toward the water, are the parts of the cruise the tourists remember. The boat goes in close, the shutters click, and no one feels right about it. A few years ago the nudists got together and rented the boat, then took off their clothes when they were half a mile from the dock. They made the pilot steer the boat in close to the regular beaches, the boat put-ins, and the main road that runs along one side. Never once did any of them mention Brigham Young, emancipator of sorts, whose first house looked down on what is now a shimmering lake in the summer sun.