Watchers of Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) got an early Pioneer Day treat over the weekend. A YouTube account, FLDS Productions, popped up with a dozen interesting videos. Some, like the time-lapse video showing an entire home being built in a single day by members of the community, have been posted before. But others offer an interesting glimpse into Short Creek life.

The videos all appear to have been made prior to 2008.

My favorite is the 29-minute videotape of Colorado City’s 24th of July (Pioneer Day) Parade in 1997. The poor, videotaped quality almost adds...

Six months ago the world was fairly different.

It was cold. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was a measly 13,596. The Utah Jazz had just beaten the Miami Heat and looked like a playoff team. And “The Lone Ranger” still seemed like a good idea.

But at least one thing hasn’t changed: We still don’t know what’s going to happen in the “Sister Wives” lawsuit.

As of Wednesday, it has been six months since the last hearing in the Brown family’s legal challenge to Utah’s bigamy statute. In case you don’t remember — it has been a long time, after all — the Brown family became famous on th...

Our partners over at KUTV published a story Monday about rumors of a new Warren Jeffs edict. And it’s a scary one: apparently the imprisoned FLDS leader has ordered all women and girls older than 12 to get pregnant.

Since the rumors began circulating, I’ve been trying to find someone who can confirm their origin. But so far, I haven’t had much luck.

Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General said he was aware of the rumors but had no way of knowing how true they may be. I also talked to Kim Nuttall, a victim’s advocate for the Mohave County prosecutor’s office, and Jean Goode, the Safety Net admini...

The United Effort Plan continues to hurtle toward a conclusion, but not everyone is convinced it will work.

Last week I wrote about the deadline to apply to the board of the controversial polygamous trust. That deadline came and went Thursday.

Tuesday afternoon, I called attorney Roger Hoole to see if he thought the process was going to work. He wasn’t optimistic.

Hoole, who represents several people who have left the FLDS church, has long favored distributing the trust’s assets. Tuesday, he expressed skepticism that authorities would be able to find enough qualified people to fi...

James Dee Harmston, leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days, died June 27 in Sanpete County.

Last week, The Sanpete Messenger published two stories on Harmston and his church. I encourage you to buy a copy of the paper if you’re in Sanpete County or go to the Messenger website if you’re not. But here are a few important points from the coverage.

The Messenger had some more details on how Harmston’s views developed in the early 1990s and his excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The newspaper quoted Greg Maylett, who was the Manti Stake P...

Anyone wanting to help manage a controversial trust holding assets benefitting the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has until the end of today to apply.

During a Safety Net meeting I attended Thursday morning, Utah Attorney General spokesman Paul Murphy said that officials are currently taking applications to serve on the board of the United Effort Plan. The plan is a multi million dollar trust that holds much of the property in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

The call for applications is a major step forward after years of contention surrounding the trust. Founded by members...

Reporter Jim Dalrymple II is covering the Safety Net meeting this morning. Follow his tweets on the left or @jimmycdii.

Safety Net formed in 2003. It’s aim is to assist people living in or trying to leave polygamy.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court made largely favorable rulings for gay marriage last month, there has been hope in some quarters, even predictions, that polygamy is next.

The thinking, by people favoring polygamy and opposing it, seems to be the court has started a slippery slope, and the slope’s next ledge is allowing plural marriage.

Maybe that is where the law is going. But I see one big political science difference between gay marriage and polygamy.

It’s said one thing that boosted gay marriage supporters is the personalization of the issue. Gays and lesbians came out, expresse...

As The Tribune reported online Thursday and in Friday’s newspaper, James Dee Harmston, leader of The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of The Last Days, died of a heart attack in Sanpete County.

Harmston, who was 72, was a polygamist who made headlines over the years for questionable business dealings, provoking officials in the town of Manti and doomsday predictions. But I’ll point out a search of Utah court records reveals no criminal prosecutions against Harmston.

We’ve reposted some old stories about Harmston and his group on our website. Here’s a collection.

...

Yesterday I spoke with polygamists and lawyers about their responses to end of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Prop 8.

But lawyers and polygamists weren’t the only ones making the connection between the supreme court rulings and plural marriage. Among the more popular responses bubbling up from the dark corners of the internet was a series of comments from conservative... person Glenn Beck, who seemed to express fear that the rulings would lead to polygamy in the United States. Naturally, Beck’s response also includes references to Muslims.

Writing for BuzzFeed, my fellow BYU alumnus McKay Coppi...

All eyes are trained on the U.S. Supreme Court this week, but people involved with polygamy are paying a little extra attention.

Lawyer Ken Driggs said Tuesday that he plans to spend Wednesday morning reading the decisions on California’s Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Driggs, an Atlanta-based historian and attorney who has studied polygamy and is currently working on a book about the issue, said he expects the decision will probably have a “peripheral” impact on cases involving plural marriage.

However, he won’t know what that impact will be until he reads the decision.

A federal magistrate isn’t buying an argument that the names and ages of people who helped harvest nuts at the Southern Utah Pecan Ranch aren’t available.

Magistrate Judge Evelyn Furse called the claim “disingenuous” and suggested that the Hildale company and its president be ordered to provide that information.

Furse also recommended that Brian Jessop, president of Paragon Contractors Corp., be ordered to name the church leader at the time an estimated 1,400 school-age children and their parents participated in the Hurricane ranch harvest. Jessop is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of La...

Photographer Trent Nelson recently visited Rulon Jeffs’ old compound at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon and found rust and high grass.

Everything looks like it could use a scrubbing or new coat of paint.

The FLDS also operated the Alta Academy school on the site. Old photos show some of the compound and school in the heydays.

Jeffs and his son, the school’s headmaster, Warren Jeffs, closed Alta Academy in 1998 and sold the property. Rulon Jeffs died in 2002.

Judging from property records, the current owners haven’t done much with it. The Salt L...

The city manager of the polygamous community of Colorado City, Ariz., has been put on probation for misusing public money.

The Kingman Daily Miner reported this week that David Darger was sentenced to 3 years on supervised probation.

Authorities have said the fire district’s money was put into an unauthorized account and used for personal purchases. Darger, who previously served as secretary-treasurer of the fire district, was charged alongside former fire chief Jacob Leonard Barlow in an Arizona court. Both pleaded guilty and received probation. However, the Miner reports, Darger remains city manager and enj...

As we reported earlier, the Safety Net conference took place all day Friday. Photographer Trent Nelson and I spent the day at the conference and heard people with varying connections to the polygamous community speak about the unique challenges and issues it faces.

There was way too much to report on everything that happened, but I’ve included a few highlights below.

At the end of the conference Safety Net director Shelli Mecham acknowledged that many of the stories shared Friday represented one end of the polygamy spectrum. She said that was intentional because service providers “work mostly with people who...

Fresh on the heels of a their new National Geographic show, the Centennial Park group was featured this week in a piece by ABC News.

The report appeared Tuesday and offers some brief background on the group, which is based just down the road from the Short Creek area on the Utah-Arizona border. However, much of the piece uses the Cawley family — including patriarch Michael and daughter Rose Marie — to explore topics including marriage and the criminalization of polygamy.

Not surprisingly, the people quoted in the article express a desire to see polygamy decriminalized and say they are tired of being grouped wi...

Have you ever wondered how you can be “obeying the law while you’re breaking the law”?

If so, the upcoming Safety Net conference — where attorney Drew Briney will speak on that topic — may be for you. The conference will be held June 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the State Capitol Office Building Auditorium.

I’ve never been to one of these before, but the flyer promises other sessions with titles like “What about the children? Bridging the legal gap,” and “Where do I go from here? Adults who left plural communities and what helped.”

Speakers include attorney Roger Hoole, Holding ...

During my visits to southern Utah’s polygamist communities I’ve often wondered: is there such a thing as polygamist town planning?

I never really had time to research the topic, but earlier this week while reading about an upcoming conference in Salt Lake City, I found a short post praising Mormonism’s founder Joseph Smith as “an unsung hero of city planning.” The post — released by the influential Congress of New Urbanism — also included a link to the blog The Basement Geographer, which among other things explains “Mormon town grids and the Plat of Zion.”

And that’s where I found the polygamy connection. The...

What do you know about Centennial Park, Ariz.?

Whatever the answer, you’re about to learn a lot more thanks to “Polygamy USA,” a new series that premiered Tuesday on the National Geographic Channel. According to the website, the show offers an unprecedented look at the “rites, rituals and lives” of the polygamists living in the community just down the road from Colorado City. The show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. MDT.

So how good is it?

I’ve only watched the first few minutes of the first episode — which begins with the story of 30-year-old Isaiah Thomson — but so far I found it engagi...

Hildale • Several weeks ago we started hearing about the circular room in the secretive home built for Warren Jeffs.

Phrases like, “a sphere with a bed” made with “special wood from Russia” by only “three special assistants to Lyle Jeffs” and no one else allowed into the room.

But when we finally got into that circular room late last week we found that it had been changed back into a square. And quickly, from what we could tell.

In our report last week we tried to detail that the cheaper carpet and poor drywall texturing that indicated the changes. But taking a closer look at the ...

Earlier this week, while reporting on a new Slate food stamp widget, I learned that there appears to have been an increase in the number of Hildale residents on food stamps. And now I’ve received the Colorado City data, displayed in the chart above.

The chart provides numbers from July 2011 to February 2012. During that time, an average of 445.85 food stamp cases per month were filed. The average number of food stamp recipients during that same time period was 3,942.1. Cases can represent groups or families.

According to the 2010 census, the population of Colorado City is 4,821. So, assuming that number remain...

One of the things I’ve heard from time to time since on the polygamy beat is polygamists suck public resources in the form of welfare.

I’m not sure how widely this topic is actually debated — I had never heard it until I started this beat, for example — but I’ve become increasingly curious about how true it might be.

Wanting to know more, I also contacted Nick Dunn at the Utah Department of Workforce Services. He told me Wednesday that for the 12 months that started April 1, 2012, an average of 1,689 people per month have used food stamps in Hildale.

The 2010 census listed Hild...

A one-time president of the FLDS church is getting out of a Texas prison next week after spending just over a year behind bars.

The Eldorado Success reported Tuesday that 72-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen will leave prison May 8. Unfortunately, the article is protected by a paywall, so you’ll need a subscription to read it, but in short it says that Nielsen will go free after serving 13 months of a 10-year sentence for bigamy.

Nielsen briefly served as the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints before Warren Jeffs reclaimed the office from his jail cell in 2011.

Hildale • Last week, as Trent Nelson and I toured a compound here built for Warren Jeffs, I used my phone to capture some video.

The resulting video should be useful for getting an idea of what the compound is like.

Please keep in mind that this video really was shot with a cell phone and edited during a car ride; so, it’s not the slickest thing in the world.

The video also doesn’t get into a lot of the legal details surrounding the property. For that information, visit some of last week’s coverage of the compound, or visit the Tribune’s main polygamy page.

St. George • Warren Jeffs’ former spokesman bought his compound in Hildale on Thursday for bids worth $3.6 million.

Willie Jessop bought the compound using credit earned from a court judgement he won after suing Jeffs and his lieutenants for burglarizing his business. Jessop obtained a default judgement of about $30 million.

Click here for more on the purchase.

After reporting in March on an extensive and mysterious surveillance network in two polygamous towns, we asked for help identifying cameras we may have missed. Now, we’ve updated the map with six new cameras that were submitted by users.

The newly-identified cameras, including three at a sewer pond, are marked on the map with green push pin icons to differentiate them from those we documented while exploring Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. You may also need to zoom out to see all of them; while we mostly documented cameras in the core of the towns, most of these new additions to the map lie on the outskirts of the twin towns.

One of the more interesting details that came out of last week’s United Effort Plan hearing is that some of the police in Short Creek could be in hot water.

The latest accusations are not that law enforcement violated rights or spied on people who no longer follow their leader. No, the marshals of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., could be in trouble for not paying rent.

Attorney Jeff Shields mentioned the situation during his comments in court. When I called for more details, Shields explained that like many people in the southern Utah polygamous towns, members of the local marshals office at one tim...

Joe and Vicki Darger joined a video chat on Tuesday with Huffington Post host Abby Huntsman to discuss polygamy and whether it should be decriminalized.

Some polygamy opponents joined the chat, too. Click on the video player to view the chat.

The chat occurs as polygamy is receiving attention in the debate over gay marriage.

— Nate Carlisle

Twitter: @natecarlisle

The country waits for the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage, but Utah has an older marriage debate.

Joe Darger, who with his three wives detailed their life in the book “Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage,” offers support for gay marriage and would like the same in kind. In a column Darger wrote for Salon.com, he briefly recounts times he and his family felt persecuted for their religion and lifestyle. Darger goes on to wonder whether public sentiment will swing his way.

Darger writes:

“And now, the gay marriage debate has turned the spotlight back...

Yes, the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., have a police force, but not one outsiders seem to want to rely upon.

That’s because the town marshals are believed to be loyal to imprisoned Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs. So the state of Arizona has been paying for Mohave County sheriff’s deputies to patrol the towns, too.

But that money is about to run out, reporter Ladd Egan at our media partner KUTV explains in the embedded video.

So what to do? Should Arizona taxpayers keep paying to police Hildale and Colorado ...

If it’s spring, it’s time to update the status of the United Effort Plan.

Bruce Wisan, the accountant appointed in 2005 to oversee the UEP, filed his annual report with the court on Tuesday. The UEP is the trust holding most of the property in Hildale, Utah, Colorado City, Ariz., and some property in Bountiful, British Columbia.

We have attached a full copy of the report. Here are a few important points I noticed:

The UEP still has a cash flow problem. • Yes, the Utah legislature loaned Wisan $5.6 million to pay his fees and expenses, but that doesn’t cover everything, Wisan ...

My wife and I were catching up on “Mad Men” on Monday night when my phone rang.

It was Guy Timpson, who is still a follower of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And that’s what he wanted to discuss.

A blog post last week implied Timpson is no longer in the FLDS. He said that is incorrect. Timpson still considers himself one of the FLDS. It’s Warren Jeffs who Timpson no longer follows.

Like at least a few hundred people in Colorado City, Ariz., Hildale, Utah, and a few other places, they have come to the conclusion Jeffs is no longer their prophet. T...

News continues to trickle out about the security cameras in southern Utah’s twin polygamous towns, and now it looks like the mysterious surveillance network may be even more extensive than previously thought.

At least that’s according to Guy Timpson, who said Wednesday evening that he helped operate the cameras in 2010, when he was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Timpson, there may be as many as 60 cameras scattered throughout the community, considerably more than the 29 we spotted for our original story.

Last week, we reported on what appears to be an extensive surveillance network in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Our interest in the topic was piqued by first-hand experience; it was seriously disconcerting walking around with cameras tracking us and not knowing who exactly was on the other end.

But we have no idea how many more mysterious cameras might be tucked away in the twin polygamous towns. We’ve also been told that new ones pop up frequently, so there may be cameras that weren’t even mounted during our visit last month.

And that’s where you come in. We’re hoping to crowdsource the camera count...

We get a lot of feedback here on the blog pointing out that there are many different types of polygamists out there. Polygamy is more than just Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you say. So true.

There are many different groups, churches, and individuals living the plural life. And not just humans. Here’s some news for you: Orcs are polygamists, too.

Yeah, we’re having some fun. It’s Friday.

If you don’t know, orcs are mythical creatures that frequently appear as villains in tales of fantasy, like “Lord of the Rings” or video games such as t...

Reporter Ladd Egan, at our media partner KUTV-Channel 2, followed up on the report that the compound built for imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs will be auctioned next month.

In the segment embedded, Willie Jessop tells Egan more about how he obtained the judgement, some of what is in the compound and why he wants it.

What do you think should become of the compound? Will anyone but Jessop bid? Who and why? Tell us below or on Twitter: @tribunepolygamy

— Nate Carlisle

Twitter: @natecarlisle

For the past few days I’ve been hearing reports of animals being run over by cars in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

After following a few leads, I heard from Issac Wyler that the most grisly event happened Feb. 20. Wyler — who did not see the incident himself — said some kids from a formerly FLDS family were playing with their dog near the dairy in Colorado City when a white pickup truck tried to run over the pet. Wyler said the kids were pleading with the driver to stop but he just laughed and “squished” the dog beneath the wheels of his truck.

“It didn’t even come close to surviving,” Wyler said.

With the U.S. Supreme Court about to hear arguments regarding gay marriage, a columnist says acceptance of same-sex marriage opens the door for the legalization of polygamy.

No, the columnist does not think either of those are good. And a rebuttal to the columnist is not any kinder to polygamists.

First, the column comes from Cal Thomas writing for Fox News. Thomas writes:

“Current laws restrict “underage” marriage, as well as polygamy. If same-sex marriage is approved, what’s to stop polygamists from demanding legal protection and cultural acceptance?”

As serious Journalists here at The Tribune, we cover the most hard-hitting of topics. But earlier this week we were entertained, and educated, by something on the lighter side: “polygamist pickup lines” — found with the hastag #polygamistpickuplines — spreading through Twitter.

The conversation got started Monday night by Twitter user Rachel Barry before luring in half a dozen or so other tweeters over the next day. My personal favorite: “you’re once, twice, three times a lady #lionelrichie.” Thanks @DargerFamily. Click below to see the whole conversation.

— Jim Dalrymple II

According to The Eldorado Success, while Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs dines on burrito casserole with salsa and punch in a Texas prison cell, he’s insisting that FLDS children live on a diet with only two ingredients: beans and water.

K. Dee Ignatin, an anti-polygamy activist, tells The Success that no other foods are allowed for the children of the polygamous sect. The Success connects this information to Ruby Jessop, a mother of six who left the group earlier this year. In a show of concern, Ignatin is putting herself on a bean fast and documenting it on YouTube. (See video above.) She i...

Our stories about the group who has broken from the FLDS ran in the newspaper and online Sunday. Since then, the most-common question I’ve received wasn’t about William E. Jessop’s policy toward underage marriage or whether the residents of Short Creek will start to dress a little more modern.

No, the most-common question has been something like this: “Wait, so the FLDS drink?”

Yes, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have traditionally been allowed to consume coffee and alcohol. Some online resources say otherwise, and you never know what Warren Jeffs is going to ban ne...

A recent court ruling in a case over water in the polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., has evaporated most of a family’s claims.

Ron and Jinjer Cooke have been trying to get water hooked up to their home in Colorado City for years. But according to our partners at KUTV, a judge this week threw out almost half of their lawsuit against the town’s water authority. The lawsuit claimed the family was being discriminated against because, among other reasons, they aren’t part of the FLDS church.

However, the judge reportedly threw out parts of the lawsuit dealing with constitutional rights an...

The polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., are pretty small, but during a recent visit I couldn’t help wondering how many people actually live there. Most of the streets were empty most of the time and there’s no bustling center, so the 10,000-person figure I heard floated seemed like a wild exaggeration.

So I looked up the towns in the 2010 census and discovered that at the most recent counting, Hildale had a population of 2,726 people. Colorado City had a population of 4,821, bringing the combined population to 7,547 people.

That number is closer to what I might have guessed. Drivin...

There wasn’t room in my profile of William E. Jessop to include the strange story of how Rulon Jeffs made him an apostle. And like most FLDS stories, the details of what transpired are murky.

But here, at least, is the outline of what happened, as written by The Tribune’s Brooke Adams in 2007:

••••••

According to John Nielsen, a former FLDS member, William E. Jessop was supposed to be set apart as a counselor to Fred Jessop around 2002 by then-prophet Rulon T. Jeffs.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.

You may have read about how there is lobbying happening at the Capitol from both sides of polygamy debate.

The Darger family has been on the hill and talking to lawmakers about striking or changing Utah’s bigamy laws to legalize their lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Kristyn Decker, a former plural wife, has been passing petitions and encouraging lawmakers to keep polygamy illegal.

But for all the talk, it looks like nothing will change at the Capitol this session. My search Thursday on the Legislature website revealed zero bills addressing bigamy or polygamy.

As further proof that nothing is quite average in the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., consider this report in the online newspaper AZCapitolTimes.com.

The newspaper, working with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, analyzed the November voting in Colorado City. The presidential vote overwhelmingly went to Mitt Romney. That’s probably not a surprise.

What’s interesting is how few of the total voters in Colorado City voted for president at all. A nifty chart with the AzCapitolTimes.com report shows Colorado City voters cast more ballots in the U.S. Senate race and ...

Last weekend, Trent Nelson and I were driving around Short Creek — and wondering if the huge pickup truck in the rearview mirror was tailing us — when we realized there’s a ton of stuff to say about polygamy but no one place to find that stuff.

There’s the Polygamy Blog, the newspaper, and our individual Twitter feeds. But it would be cool, we thought, if there was a single, go-to source for everything.

And now there is.

This week, we launched @TribunePolygamy. The idea is the create a single place for all things polygamy. Nelson, Nate Carlisle and I will all have access to the a...

Hildale • The best shots are often just out of reach in the predominantly FLDS community of Hildale.

Great documentary photography usually involves a trusting relationship and good rapport between the photographer and subject. That trust takes time to build and you can’t do that from a moving car.

In between building those relationships with people, the details of the community have often drawn my attention along the backroads of Hildale. In this case, the signs reading “Zion” placed over the doors of families still loyal to Warren Jeffs in Hidale and Colorado City, Ariz.

Here are...

For most of us, Presidents Day means that school’s out today and we’ll enjoy the day and possibly think about George Washington or another favorite president.

For the FLDS, every day is Presidents Day as portraits of prophets like Warren S. Jeffs look down from their places prominently displayed in the homes, schools and businesses of the sect’s followers.

Some pieces, like this one photographed in a classroom on the Texas YFZ Ranch in 2008, show a line of leaders who came before Jeffs that the group traces back to Joseph Smith. Included here are: Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, John W. Woolley, Lo...

A complex case involving millions of dollars of land and other assets in Utah and Arizona polygamous communities inched toward resolution Friday with all sides appearing to favor returning control of the trust to the towns’ residents.

The sides also emphasized no commitments had been made and other options were on the table. The development was announcement at a hearing Friday morning before 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg, who has overseen the United Effort Plan case since 2005.

Lindberg scheduled a new hearing for March 5. At that time attorneys will present a new proposal. Lindberg wil...