Friday, November 04, 2005
Utah: Cohabitationists Still Exist
One side of my family comes from pioneer Utah, Mormon, stock. The Mormons, the most successful American communal group, are facinating. Facinating for what they were and facinating for what they still are.
The other day I was browsing BuzzFlash and found an article about a Utah judge who was fighting for his job because he’s a polygamist—and his position became a matter of public record. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have heard about it.
The judge’s court is in a little town in southern Utah called Hildale. Hildale used to be known as Short Creek, until a highly publicized raid busted many polygamists who lived there. Short Creek/Hildale (and adjoining Colorado City, just across the line in Arizona) is still one of the most isolated parts of the west. There are highways through there, but it’s a long way from any major law enforcement agency. Colorado City is in Mojave County; the county seat is in Kingman, a long way away—on the other side of the Grand Canyon. The nearest big city to Hildale is St George, Utah—hours away by highway.
When the federal government admitted Utah to statehood part of the deal was that the Church of Later Day Saints had to give up polygamy. The church did and didn’t; polygamy continued but on a less-visible scale and with “official” church sanctions against the practice. Many polygamists (“cohabitationists”—”cohabs” for short) headed for southern Utah because of the area’s isolation.
When I read the CNN article, I remembered Short Creek. I’ve always wondered if I have relatives there. It’s very possible: coming from one of the early families who settled in Salt Lake, I know I have relatives from one end of the state to the other.
There are periodic bursts of publicity about unofficial Mormon publicity. Usually it’s mentioned that the cohabs belong to splinter groups. But there are so many of them, it’s likely they have a certain amount of LDS support—the communities they live in are essentially Mormon communities.
Jon Krakauer’s book, Under the Banner of Heaven, details some of the more recent cohab scandals. But, here’s another:
Utah judge with 3 wives fights for job
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A judge will ask the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him stay on the bench after a commission that oversees judges ordered him dismissed because he has three wives.
Those pursuing the case against Judge Walter Steed say his plural marriage creates a conflict: After taking an oath to uphold the law, he shouldn't be breaking it.
"You can't have it both ways," said Colin Winchester, the executive director of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission.
The commission issued an order seeking Steed's removal from the bench in February, after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and as such had violated Utah's bigamy law.
Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison, but Steed's attorney, Rod Parker, said Utah's attorney general and the Washington County prosecutor have declined to prosecute his client.
Steed has served for 25 years in the southern border town of Hildale, handing down rulings in drunken driving and domestic violence cases. Parker contends the bigamy statute is only enforced in rare cases, such as when someone has been duped into marrying someone who already has a wife.
"There is no allegation that it's affecting his performance on the bench," Parker said. "It really is truly only about his private conduct."
The complaint against Steed was filed with the commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, an advocacy group founded by ex-polygamous women who organized to help others leave the handful of secretive religious colonies that adhere to the practice.
Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice as a condition of statehood in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects more than 100 years ago, are believed to be living in Utah.
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985.
The three women are biological sisters and no one in the family was expecting that the second and third marriages would be civilly recognized.
"I think it's an equal protection problem," Parker said.
The state Supreme Court's chief justice, Christine Durham, opted not to place Steed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/02/polygamous.judge.ap/index.html
_________________________________________________________________
And here's a little background on the Short Creek/Hildale social scene:

A brief history of the polygamists in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah
April 5, 2002
By Rick Ross
Colorado City, Arizona has been the home for a notorious polygamist sect for more than 60 years. The mainstream Mormon Church (LDS) excommunicated its members and government officials have arrested its leaders three times. But the self-proclaimed "fundamentalist Mormons" still tenaciously cling to their exclusive doctrines, which they believe will afford them space within the highest level of heaven.
These Mormon polygamists actually have a history though that goes back to 1847, during the early days of Mormon pioneer and leader Brigham Young. Back in Young's time he came to Pipe Springs and saw its vermilion cliffs, He supposedly then did something that would later be claimed as somehow prophetic. Brigham Young said, "this is the right place [and it] will someday be the head and not the tail of the church [and]...the granaries of the Saints.''
Mormon leaders later sent the notorious John D. Lee into the same area to evade federal law enforcement. Lee was wanted for the mass-murder of 120 settlers traveling from Arkansas on a wagon train through Utah. They were apparently killed because due to their status as unbelievers. John Lee took two wives into hiding with him and started a ferryboat business and settlement. That settlement is still known as "Lee's Ferry." Lee himself was finally caught and executed in 1877.
Lee's Ferry and the so-called "Arizona Strip" became a preferred hiding place for polygamists. The practice of polygamy was eventually stopped by the Mormon Church largely in response to government pressure in 1890, when then President Wilford Woodruff received a "revelation" to end it. Later in 1904 the LDS church pragmatically enlarged that ban and officially disavowed multiple marriages.
The Arizona Strip polygamists would then claim that church President John Taylor, while staying in Centerville during the summer of 1886, had a discussion with God and Joseph Smith about polygamy. They claim God told Taylor to keep polygamy alive, but in secret. This hidden, but true church, would be somehow vital to God's plan.
The town of Short Creek, which is now called Colorado City in Arizona was founded in 1913 by Jacob Lauritzen, a cattle rancher. But it eventually it became a stronghold for the Lee's Ferry polygamists, who were excommunicated from the LDS Church in 1935 after refusing to sign an oath against polygamy.
During the Great Depression men from Short Creek came to Salt Lake City for work. They found sympathizers there such as Nathaniel Baldwin, an assembly plant owner who gave them work. John Y. Barlow and his friend Joseph White Musser also became involved. These men later formed the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (FLDS), which would be led by Barlow.
The FLDS Church set up shop in Short Creek, largely due to its isolation. Buffered by the Grand Canyon and with a hundred miles of barren desert between them and the nearest law enforcement in Kingman, Arizona, they felt comfortable there. These polygamists also knew they were near a Stateline, which could easily be strategically crossed if there was trouble.
The Short Creek polygamists brought in more men with their wives by pickup truck to their growing kingdom, which they called "The First City of the Millennium." A "charitable philanthropic trust'' was set up called the "United Effort Plan," which controlled much of their assets. But Short Creek was a burden to the welfare system of Arizona's Mohave County. Many polygamist women and children collected welfare and whatever was available through government relief.
The Mohave County attorney and the sheriff pressed charges against two polygamist leaders, who were sent to prison for two years. The FBI later raided Short Creek in 1944, and 15 more men were sent to prison in Utah. Nine of those men were later released because they signed a pledge to give up polygamy. But most simply broke that promise and returned to the practice shortly after their release.
The welfare problem became worse and Jesse Faulkner, a superior-court judge in Kingman, complained that there was a "taxpayer emergency'' regarding polygamist demands upon school facilities, even though they did not pay property taxes. Cattlemen were upset because the did pay grazing fees, which were allegedly used for polygamist schools.
Arizona Governor Howard Pyle hired private detectives to investigate Short Creek. Subsequently, on July 26, 1953 Pyle ordered a massive police raid. He said, "Here is a community...dedicated to the wicked theory that every maturing girl child should be forced into the bondage of multiple wifehood with men of all ages for the sole purpose of producing more children to be reared to become mere chattels."
Polygamist men from Short Creek were jailed in Kingman, while their plural wives children stayed behind. Arizona officials took days to sort through the families, determining who was related to whom. The LDS Church-owned Desert News supported this government action. But the raid became a public relations nightmare for Pyle, when people saw newsreels of children separated from their parents. The net result was only one year of probation for 23 polygamist men. But the negative publicity ironically helped Short Creek avoid interference from law enforcement for many years to come.
The FLDS Church then sought to eliminate any connection to the "Short Creek raid" by renaming their town Colorado City in Arizona and Hildale in Utah.
Note: Source for this article was "Polygamy: Throughout its history, Colorado City has been home for those who believe in virtues of plural marriage," Salt Lake Tribune/June 28, 1998 By Tom Zoellner

The other day I was browsing BuzzFlash and found an article about a Utah judge who was fighting for his job because he’s a polygamist—and his position became a matter of public record. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have heard about it.
The judge’s court is in a little town in southern Utah called Hildale. Hildale used to be known as Short Creek, until a highly publicized raid busted many polygamists who lived there. Short Creek/Hildale (and adjoining Colorado City, just across the line in Arizona) is still one of the most isolated parts of the west. There are highways through there, but it’s a long way from any major law enforcement agency. Colorado City is in Mojave County; the county seat is in Kingman, a long way away—on the other side of the Grand Canyon. The nearest big city to Hildale is St George, Utah—hours away by highway.
When the federal government admitted Utah to statehood part of the deal was that the Church of Later Day Saints had to give up polygamy. The church did and didn’t; polygamy continued but on a less-visible scale and with “official” church sanctions against the practice. Many polygamists (“cohabitationists”—”cohabs” for short) headed for southern Utah because of the area’s isolation.
When I read the CNN article, I remembered Short Creek. I’ve always wondered if I have relatives there. It’s very possible: coming from one of the early families who settled in Salt Lake, I know I have relatives from one end of the state to the other.
There are periodic bursts of publicity about unofficial Mormon publicity. Usually it’s mentioned that the cohabs belong to splinter groups. But there are so many of them, it’s likely they have a certain amount of LDS support—the communities they live in are essentially Mormon communities.
Jon Krakauer’s book, Under the Banner of Heaven, details some of the more recent cohab scandals. But, here’s another:
Utah judge with 3 wives fights for job
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- A judge will ask the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him stay on the bench after a commission that oversees judges ordered him dismissed because he has three wives.
Those pursuing the case against Judge Walter Steed say his plural marriage creates a conflict: After taking an oath to uphold the law, he shouldn't be breaking it.
"You can't have it both ways," said Colin Winchester, the executive director of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission.
The commission issued an order seeking Steed's removal from the bench in February, after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and as such had violated Utah's bigamy law.
Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison, but Steed's attorney, Rod Parker, said Utah's attorney general and the Washington County prosecutor have declined to prosecute his client.
Steed has served for 25 years in the southern border town of Hildale, handing down rulings in drunken driving and domestic violence cases. Parker contends the bigamy statute is only enforced in rare cases, such as when someone has been duped into marrying someone who already has a wife.
"There is no allegation that it's affecting his performance on the bench," Parker said. "It really is truly only about his private conduct."
The complaint against Steed was filed with the commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, an advocacy group founded by ex-polygamous women who organized to help others leave the handful of secretive religious colonies that adhere to the practice.
Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice as a condition of statehood in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects more than 100 years ago, are believed to be living in Utah.
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985.
The three women are biological sisters and no one in the family was expecting that the second and third marriages would be civilly recognized.
"I think it's an equal protection problem," Parker said.
The state Supreme Court's chief justice, Christine Durham, opted not to place Steed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/02/polygamous.judge.ap/index.html
_________________________________________________________________
And here's a little background on the Short Creek/Hildale social scene:

A brief history of the polygamists in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah
April 5, 2002
By Rick Ross
Colorado City, Arizona has been the home for a notorious polygamist sect for more than 60 years. The mainstream Mormon Church (LDS) excommunicated its members and government officials have arrested its leaders three times. But the self-proclaimed "fundamentalist Mormons" still tenaciously cling to their exclusive doctrines, which they believe will afford them space within the highest level of heaven.
These Mormon polygamists actually have a history though that goes back to 1847, during the early days of Mormon pioneer and leader Brigham Young. Back in Young's time he came to Pipe Springs and saw its vermilion cliffs, He supposedly then did something that would later be claimed as somehow prophetic. Brigham Young said, "this is the right place [and it] will someday be the head and not the tail of the church [and]...the granaries of the Saints.''
Mormon leaders later sent the notorious John D. Lee into the same area to evade federal law enforcement. Lee was wanted for the mass-murder of 120 settlers traveling from Arkansas on a wagon train through Utah. They were apparently killed because due to their status as unbelievers. John Lee took two wives into hiding with him and started a ferryboat business and settlement. That settlement is still known as "Lee's Ferry." Lee himself was finally caught and executed in 1877.
Lee's Ferry and the so-called "Arizona Strip" became a preferred hiding place for polygamists. The practice of polygamy was eventually stopped by the Mormon Church largely in response to government pressure in 1890, when then President Wilford Woodruff received a "revelation" to end it. Later in 1904 the LDS church pragmatically enlarged that ban and officially disavowed multiple marriages.
The Arizona Strip polygamists would then claim that church President John Taylor, while staying in Centerville during the summer of 1886, had a discussion with God and Joseph Smith about polygamy. They claim God told Taylor to keep polygamy alive, but in secret. This hidden, but true church, would be somehow vital to God's plan.
The town of Short Creek, which is now called Colorado City in Arizona was founded in 1913 by Jacob Lauritzen, a cattle rancher. But it eventually it became a stronghold for the Lee's Ferry polygamists, who were excommunicated from the LDS Church in 1935 after refusing to sign an oath against polygamy.
During the Great Depression men from Short Creek came to Salt Lake City for work. They found sympathizers there such as Nathaniel Baldwin, an assembly plant owner who gave them work. John Y. Barlow and his friend Joseph White Musser also became involved. These men later formed the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (FLDS), which would be led by Barlow.
The FLDS Church set up shop in Short Creek, largely due to its isolation. Buffered by the Grand Canyon and with a hundred miles of barren desert between them and the nearest law enforcement in Kingman, Arizona, they felt comfortable there. These polygamists also knew they were near a Stateline, which could easily be strategically crossed if there was trouble.
The Short Creek polygamists brought in more men with their wives by pickup truck to their growing kingdom, which they called "The First City of the Millennium." A "charitable philanthropic trust'' was set up called the "United Effort Plan," which controlled much of their assets. But Short Creek was a burden to the welfare system of Arizona's Mohave County. Many polygamist women and children collected welfare and whatever was available through government relief.
The Mohave County attorney and the sheriff pressed charges against two polygamist leaders, who were sent to prison for two years. The FBI later raided Short Creek in 1944, and 15 more men were sent to prison in Utah. Nine of those men were later released because they signed a pledge to give up polygamy. But most simply broke that promise and returned to the practice shortly after their release.
The welfare problem became worse and Jesse Faulkner, a superior-court judge in Kingman, complained that there was a "taxpayer emergency'' regarding polygamist demands upon school facilities, even though they did not pay property taxes. Cattlemen were upset because the did pay grazing fees, which were allegedly used for polygamist schools.
Arizona Governor Howard Pyle hired private detectives to investigate Short Creek. Subsequently, on July 26, 1953 Pyle ordered a massive police raid. He said, "Here is a community...dedicated to the wicked theory that every maturing girl child should be forced into the bondage of multiple wifehood with men of all ages for the sole purpose of producing more children to be reared to become mere chattels."
Polygamist men from Short Creek were jailed in Kingman, while their plural wives children stayed behind. Arizona officials took days to sort through the families, determining who was related to whom. The LDS Church-owned Desert News supported this government action. But the raid became a public relations nightmare for Pyle, when people saw newsreels of children separated from their parents. The net result was only one year of probation for 23 polygamist men. But the negative publicity ironically helped Short Creek avoid interference from law enforcement for many years to come.
The FLDS Church then sought to eliminate any connection to the "Short Creek raid" by renaming their town Colorado City in Arizona and Hildale in Utah.
Note: Source for this article was "Polygamy: Throughout its history, Colorado City has been home for those who believe in virtues of plural marriage," Salt Lake Tribune/June 28, 1998 By Tom Zoellner

