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...

Reporter Jim Dalrymple II and photographer Trent Nelson are covering this morning’s court hearing concerning the state’s management of the United Effort Plan. Based on a new court filing, it appears the hearing will showcase a conflict over what to do with the UEP.

Here’s a review and primer.

• The United Effort Plan is a trust owning nearly all land in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. It was established to benefit members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Trust holdings, from homes to businesses to land, are estimated at $110 million.

For many of us Americans, today is a day to snuggle a little closer with the one you love.

But not much of that is going on among the FLDS in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., these days. The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Warren Jeffs, is prohibiting marriages — among other things.

It didn’t used to be that way. While the FLDS never celebrated the day as heartily as the rest of us, they used to at least recognize it, said Ezra Draper, 40.

Draper was raised among the FLDS in Salt Lake County, then moved to Short Creek — the tradi...

The area around the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., is still a desert. But now it looks like it’ll be a little less of a “food desert.”

A new grocery store is opening up in Arizona three miles outside of the Short Creek region. Ladd Egan of KUTV reported last week that the new store sits just off Arizona Highway 389 in the community of Centennial Park. The store also reportedly will be operated by a fundamentalist Mormon group that split from the FLDS in the 1980s, though anyone will be allowed to shop there.

The store’s manager, as well as authorities, believe the store will ...

It’s the kind of scene that Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys would stumble upon at the start of another adventure-filled mystery.

Reports out of Texas say members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints there are crushing their vehicles into scrap heaps. Lawn mowers, too.

In a Jan. 31 report by Monique Ching in the San Angelo Standard-Times, James Doyle says that “around 50 nice cars” including Cadillac Escalades have been destroyed by the FLDS in Texas. Doyle offers a possible explanation: There are liens on the cars.

Kathy Mankin, of the Eldorado Success, ...

Like a scene out of a John Ford Western, boys who have no home will soon ride the rugged ridges of Utah on horseback.

Within several weeks the New Found Life Mentor Foundation plans to bring in a pair of horses for boys leaving the polygamous communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Colo.

New Found Life Mentor Foundation is in Grantsville. Executive director Shawn Bennett said he anticipates the horses offering a therapeutic opportunity to take care of animals and go riding.

According to Bennett, the New Found Life Mentor Foundation was formally organized in April to help...

Left with no other options, a federal judge has dismissed an FLDS lawsuit that would have wrested control of land away from the state.

Bruce Wisan — the fiduciary appointed to the state to oversee the trust and a defendant in the lawsuit — called U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson’s decision “expected.” The decision may also eventually clear the way for Wisan to sell UEP property, though he is currently under orders by a different judge to not sell anything. Selling property is necessary to pay debts incurred by the UEP, including $5.6 million owed to Wisan.

In his ruling issued Thursday, Benson dismissed ...

This photograph of a group of FLDS boys and young men standing near a bonfire in Hildale says a lot to me. What does it say to you?

On the surface it’s a photograph from a small Utah town where it’s still common practice to pile up a bunch of trash and set it ablaze. But photographs can be deeper.

Could the dark figures of these boys represent the silence the group has withdrawn into?

Could the flames represent the many legal challenges closing in on the sect?

Each viewer will find different meanings in the photograph and some may toss it out as a meani...

A huge tax bill has piled up in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., after taxes on FLDS property weren’t paid for five years.

According to a report that aired last night on KUTV, no property taxes have been paid on land held by the United Effort Plan — a trust originally set up by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but now controlled by the state. The bill now adds up to more than $4 million, according to KUTV, and local authorities say that the various conflicts over the property means they can do little more than track the debt.

The UEP property has been val...

Introducing The Tribune’s new polygamy bloggers: Reporter Jim Dalrymple II and photographer Trent Nelson.

They’ll be reporting on and photographing polygamy in Utah — from the FLDS in Hildale and the Brown family of “Sister Wives” as they challenge the bigamy statute in federal court, to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of polygamous families that live throughout Utah with their own stories to tell.

They’ll also give a voice to polygamy opponents and people who say they were victimized through polygamy or by leaders of polygamous communities.

Here are a few words from Dalrymple ...

After a couple of great years covering polygamy in Utah, I’ve accepted a new beat covering higher education for The Tribune.

Though I’m looking forward to the new beat (Controversy over the Dixie State name and ESL program plagiarism anyone?) I’m going to really miss covering polygamy in Utah.

Taking over for me is Jim Dalrymple II, who joined us from the Provo Herald, assisted by editor Nate Carlisle, who’s been involved with the beat for years.

You will also start seeing blog posts from photographer Trent Nelson, who has been snapping photos of all things polygamy for eight ye...

Ronald and Jinjer Cooke have been trying for years to have water hooked up to their home in Colorado City, Ariz.

But the water authority in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, has refused to connect them. The Tribune reported on the Cooke’s troubles and their lawsuit in 2010.

Our partners at KUTV updated the story this week. The Cooke family now has electricity, but is still hauling water to their home. He says it’s because he left the FLDS many years ago and town leaders are discriminating against him.

At one point, Colorado City filed a counterlawsuit against the Cookes, saying t...

Two relatively minor decisions were issued in polygamy-related legal cases Tuesday, giving a man access to his own land and preventing FLDS bishops from intervening in the administration of the United Effort Plan.

The first decision was issued in St. George and grants Richard Holm access to a piece of land in Hildale. According to his attorney Benjamin Ruesch, Holm purchased the land in 2006 from the United Effort Plan — which controls the FLDS church’s land and was taken over by the state in 2005.

However, Holm was challenged by the city of Hildale as well as Wayne Jessop and Kelly Fischer, both members of th...

I got Janelle: “logical,” “a thinker” and a person with “a great sense of humor.”

Evidently, I’d also be super good at helping my sister wives cope with jealousy over our shared husband.

Or so says Buzzfeed in its recent post “Which Of The ‘Sister Wives’ Are You Most Like?” The post is an online quiz that over the course of 12 questions matches readers to one of Kody Brown’s four wives — Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn — who have become famous as the stars of TLC’s reality television show “Sister Wives.”

Think you’re prone to knee-jerk reactions and watching movies about rainbo...

As the Utah Legislature prepares for the 2013 session, members of one polygamous Utah family are stepping up efforts to humanize their lifestyle.

Joe Darger said Thursday afternoon he and members of his family — including wives Alina, Vicki and Valerie, as well as some of their 24 children — are meeting with Utah legislators and giving them copies of the book “Love Times Three.”

The book details the experience of Darger’s family members. It was co-written by Tribune reporter Brooke Adams.

Darger said the meetings have been going well, though he declined to mention specific lawmake...

Sunday’s Salt Lake Tribune included an obituary for Edmund Owen Barlow, who died of cancer Jan. 13. He was 70.

Barlow’s obituary lists his three wives and 32 children as survivors. Just as interesting was Barlow’s late father, Albert Edmund Barlow.

The elder Barlow was belonged to the group that would become known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Albert Barlow was imprisoned twice for “unlawful cohabitation.” That was a Utah law on the books used to prosecute polygamists. Barlow’s was imprisoned first in 1945 and again in 1959.

After being sente...

As we wrote in yesterday’s article, the latest court hearing over the “Sister Wives” lawsuit was surprisingly lively, even conversational.

And it was heated. Afterward Utah Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen stood on the courtroom steps and said it probably didn’t go very well. He was apparently referring to Judge Clark Waddoups’ many questions about his case; for nearly 40 minutes Jensen and Waddoups butted heads over what exactly made polygamous relationships more dangerous than, say, a man having affairs with multiple women.

The conversation began as Waddoups grilled Jensen over fundamental rights. ...

UPDATE: Kristyn Decker will meet with her group, called the Sound Choices Coalition, 3 p.m. Thursday at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. That’s 30 minutes before the Browns’ hearing. Decker is a former polygamist wife who is now a polygamy opponent. Decker’s press release does not say whether this will be a protest, but Decker has criticized the Browns’ attempts to decriminalize polygamy.

Original post:

On Monday, I wrote a story previewing Thursday’s court hearing in the Brown family lawsuit against the state of Utah.

But I haven’t re...

UPDATE: Kristyn Decker will meet with her group, called the Sound Choices Coalition, 3 p.m. Thursday at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. That’s 30 minutes before the Browns’ hearing. Decker is a former polygamist wife who is now a polygamy opponent. Decker’s press release does not say whether this will be a protest, but Decker has criticized the Browns’ attempts to decriminalize polygamy.

Original post:

A group of activists has organized a petition to oppose the decriminalization of polygamy.

Called “Stand Against Legalizing the Subjug...