Towns Brace for Fleeing Polygamists

Two towns along the Utah/Arizona state line (Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.) are ruled by polygamous families, with one family in particular acting as virtual royalty. Unfortunately for them, divisions and discontent has been building there over the years and the fallout may lead to a large-scale exodus from the communities - in fact, neighboring towns are bracing for an influx of fleeing polygamists.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Most residents in the border towns at the base of the Cannan Mountains belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose leader this past weekend stripped 20 prominent male members of their wives, children and church membership. FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs also ordered the men -- including former Mayor Dan Barlow, who resigned this week and reportedly went into hiding in St. George -- to leave town. ... [T]he mood in Colorado City was decidedly somber and guarded toward interlopers Thursday. Not even cashiers at the Cooperative Mercantile, usually chatty with visitors, would speak or make eye contact. "They've all been told not to talk," said Cyril Bradshaw, a retired Colorado City teacher who challenged the church's common property rules after he left the polygamous sect.

From the following day's paper:

An anonymous letter showed up in many mailboxes last week, stating that Louis Barlow -- Dan's older brother -- should become the FLDS leader. Among recipients of the letter was Ben Bistline, the area's self-appointed historian. Bistline grew up in a polygamous family but became disenchanted with the lifestyle and, in the late 1980s, joined a group of dissidents who challenged the church's communal property practices in court. Church leaders tried to evict the dissidents from their homes but the group prevailed in court and won the right to stay.

A woman who fled Colorado City recently and settled along the Wasatch Front said she did not understand how terrible her life had been until she left. "Life outside of there was really strange to me. I didn't realize how I had been mistreated and abused until I left," she said in a telephone interview Friday. "Maybe I would have left sooner if I had had someone to call." Today, she is trying to help her daughter and grandchildren leave. "It's not that easy," she said. "She's afraid that Warren Jeffs will tell her husband she has to go. If that happens, they'll take the kids away and kick her out."

Rick Ross has a number of criticisms of the FLDS:

FLDS is essentially like a totalitarian state ruled over by the Jeffs family. And in recent years the royal succession has passed from one Jeffs to another, who is apparently now involved in consolidating his kingdom. Rulon Jeffs ruled over thousands of FLDS followers for decades, but he died in 2002, bequeathing the throne of his multi-million dollar domain to his son Warren Jeffs. ... [T]his thinly veiled theocracy is largely supported with taxpayer money. This is done through federal and state funding of schools, municipal improvements and social welfare programs.

This definitely doesn't sound like a place I would like to live - in fact, I'm not sure I would be comfortable even just passing through the area.

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