Colorado City is impacted by change
 
Custer County Chronicle - Custer, South Dakota
 
With all the construction going on at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compounds in Custer County and Texas, one might wonder if there’s anyone left in Colorado City, Utah.

"Most of the people are left here," said Isaac Wyler, former FLDS member and resident of Colorado City. "I’d be surprised if 1,000 are gone."

As for someone firing three shots at him two weeks ago, it turned out to be a pickup backfiring. Still, it was meant to scare him, he believes. The pickup belongs to a FLDS member who was going to testify at FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs’ trial last month on Jeffs’ behalf, he said.

He is one of Warren’s "goons," Wyler said. Warren’s "goons" are not members of the Colorado City police force, which is FLDS, but they work side by side with the police.

"Some have badges and some don't," Wyler said. When Andrew Chatwin was evicted from his home in Colorado City, they were all involved. "We call them the 'god squad,'" Wyler said.

There is a lot of harassment going on in Colorado City, he noted. For him, it started when he was kicked out of the FLDS along with 20 other men Jan. 10, 2004, and didn’t leave the area.

It was the largest single "kick-out" in FLDS history, according to Wyler, with 70 women leaving their husbands and hundreds of children taken from their fathers.

And the harassment never stops, he added. A vehicle recently broke through 200 feet of his fence and chased his stallion around, breaking its back. The stallion was quite valuable, as it was the son of the top stallion in the nation.

"I can’t prove it all," Wyler said, "but there were tire tracks all over, 20 feet of destroyed fence and a horse with a broken back. It don’t take too much to put two and two together."

And just last week, Wyler came home from a business trip and found that someone had sunk a hunting knife into one of his pivot tires.

The FLDS members in Colorado City are now trying to portray Jeffs as being persecuted, Wyler said. "To them it’s proof that he’s a prophet," he added. "It’s convoluted, I know."

They can’t afford to choose another prophet, he noted. "Then all this is a farce," he said. "They have to sink or swim with him."

He is hoping the city will turn around and there are signs it is doing just that. FLDS members are talking to the press now, something they wouldn’t do before, he said. The mayor recently said the town would never be the same. "As much stuff has happened here, it can never go back to what it was," he said, according to Wyler.

"He’s saying it’s a bad thing," Wyler said. "But I think it’s a good thing."
 
CusterCountyNews.com
Originally published October 24, 2007
 
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