Religious Sect Makes Home In West Texas Town
 
By Ellen McNamara
KLBK CBS 13 - Lubbock
YFZ Ranch

ELDORADO--A road less traveled is now a tourist attraction for a West Texas town. Eldorado, just south of San Angelo, has the signature West Texas courthouse, blinking light and population of about 2,000. But it`s growing fast.

"I`m not scared. I worry how its gonna effect the town. Eldorado will never be the same. This group is here to stay," says Randy Mankin, editor of the local newspaper, the Eldorado Success, talking about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, of FLDS. More than one year ago, the group based in Utah and Arizona slowly began to migrate. "We knew there was a group north of town that had bought some property. They told the townspeople that they were putting in a corporate hunting retreat."

The hunting retreat story fizzled when a local pilot flew over the 1,600-acre-plus ranch. That`s when Mankin dug into the world under lockdown, one that we couldn`t get into either.

"They practice polygamy, they have multiple wives, multiple marriages," says Mankin.

The openly polygamous group has a history beginning in the early 19th century. But it wasn`t until recently that they began building a new chapter in Texas.

"Virtually, all of it is being done in-house by this group and its phenomenal," says Mankin.

An amazing feat because the temple that overshadows even a semi-truck was created by the members themselves.

"They have family values, but not the way we see them. They have unique family values in the fact that they practice polygamy,: says David Doran, Schleicher County Sheriff, who deals first-hand with the FLDS. "They feel like they`re being persecuted for their religion."

Doran has never met their leader, 48-year-old prophet Warren Jeffs. Jeffs has an estimated 70 children and 40 wives, some of whom used to be his father`s.

"The people involved in this community have been involved in this community since the late 1800`s," says Doran. Their fathers, their grandparents and generations back, go into this community. So they don`t recruit from the outside," says Doran.

Even without recruiting, they`ve bred an estimated 10,000 followers. Although Jeffs hides, his most loyal follow ... and they live at the Yearn For Zion Ranch.

"I really do believe he thinks he`s God, or at least God`s man on Earth here now and if he is that much of an egomaniac, I wonder what he would do to those people," says Mankin.

But the people stay, because if they disobey, they`ll lose everything. The men wear button downs and pants while the women wear brilliant colored dresses, never cut their hair and are married as soon as their bodies are able to bear children.

So how can practicing polygamists exist in present times?

"We`re not investigating them, because they haven`t committed any criminal acts in the state of Texas," says Doran.

Spiritual marriages is the legal loophole, but what about sex with a minor?

"I`ve talked to the Washington County Sheriff, and he`s in the same situation that I am," says Doran. "Law enforcement has to act on fact, evidence, probable cause and complaint."

Complaints don`t come, because members living at the ranch don`t leave. Sheriff Doran has become the middle man, finding himself in a crossroads, one leading to the YFZ Ranch and the other to the people of Eldorado.

As speculation spins from every angle, fear of a town takeover increases.

"We don`t know what the future holds," says Doran. "I don`t see it now, i don`t see it in the near future, but 20-years down the road? There`s no telling."

But this story is only told from one side of the gate: the one trying to look in.

"This group may be in Eldorado, but the next group may be in Roosevelt, or Shallowater or Wolfforth or Tahoka," says Mankin.

To clarify, the FLDS church is a sect that broke off from the mainstream Mormon church in 1929. Lubbock has a temple, but it is part of the mainstream Mormon church.
 
klbk13.tv
Originally broadcast May 5, 2005
 
Back