This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Hildale • Salt Lake Tribune photographer Trent Nelson and I went to knock on the door of a construction business here last week. As we approached the door, an industrial loader rolled around the corner of the building in front of us.
Three boys were in the cab. A fourth was hanging from it. He gripped the frame of the cab with his hands and stood on the floor as the left rear wheel turned inches away.
The driver looked the oldest. He was about age 10.
It was not an uncommon sight here. To visit Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., is to see what would happen to boys if toys manufactured by Tonka were replaced by ones from Caterpillar.
Hildale and Colorado City, collectively known as Short Creek, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The polygamous church has a history of using children as laborers. There are two cases pending in federal court in Utah where Hildale-based companies are accused of illegally employing children. Other businesses run by FLDS members have been fined for child labor over the years.
When Nelson and I visit, we often see boys operating loaders, forklifts or backhoes. I can't recall ever seeing a girl behind the wheel or controls.
Most of these operators look like they are at least teenagers. Some of those look old enough to drive a Chevy. Whatever the age, sometimes the boys have accidents.
On March 10, 2014, Rulon Barlow Jessop, 14, died when the forklift he was driving went off a bridge in Colorado City. People here have had questions about that case, in part because the forklift was removed and destroyed at a recycling facility before the U.S. Department of Labor could investigate the accident, according to a police report. No criminal charges or administrative actions were filed.
I've seen kids drive big things before elsewhere. I learned to drive a manual transmission by grinding the gears atop my parents' Farmall M Tractor when I was 13. A lot of the kids I grew up with in Illinois were driving tractors — bigger tractors — earlier than that.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a child operating heavy machinery may be illegal if he or she is employed by someone other than a parent.
And so, since I'm neither a lawyer nor deputized to investigate child welfare or labor, I can't tell you how often the boys I've seen operating these machines are doing something that violates the law. Even in the case of the four boys atop the loader, were they working as part of a construction operation or just doing chores?
If the letter of the law isn't murky, the spirit can be. The same day Nelson and I saw those boys on the loader, we saw a 14- or 15-year-old unhitch a trailer from a semi-truck and move that truck to another parking spot. He probably drove the truck 40 feet — not exactly a distance that will earn him a CB handle nor one that will get the Labor Department speeding to Short Creek.
Plus, it's not like any kids were hanging from the sides.
Twitter: @natecarlisle