FLDS leaders are creating Texas refuge

ST. GEORGE — A 1,300-acre spread in sparsely populated Schleicher County, Texas, will not be used by its polygamist buyers as a corporate hunting retreat, contrary to what the owners first told county officials.

"This is not going to be used as a hunting ranch," Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said Sunday after a short visit to the west Texas town of Eldorado, where the compound is located.

The Texas property, sold in November 2003 to a company called "YFZ Land, LLC," lists Colorado City, Ariz., resident David Allred as its agent. YFZ reportedly stands for "Yearn For Zion," a song written by 48-year-old Warren Jeffs, president and prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Smith and undersheriff Pete Kuhlmann

traveled to Schleicher County at the invitation of David Doran, that county's sheriff. The two met with Doran and 22 community leaders in a two-hour, question-and-answer session geared toward learning more about the FLDS Church and its followers, Smith said.

Residents of Eldorado learned in late March that the FLDS Church had purchased property in the county and was constructing several large, three-story rectangular buildings on the site. Flyovers of the property showed that a garden had been planted, a well was providing water and a concrete batch plant was in operation.

Allred initially told Doran and others the compound would be used as a corporate hunting retreat. But that changed Wednesday at a meeting Doran held with Allred and others, Smith said.

"They said it was not their intent to deceive the community, but if they announced they were an FLDS community it would draw a lot of attention and press," said Smith. "That seems to have backfired on them."

Indeed, publicity about the site has prompted Texas reporters and others to come to Utah for a look at Hildale in Washington County, and Colorado City, just across the border in Arizona. Most of the FLDS Church's 10,000 members live in the two towns.

According to Smith, Doran asked questions, and the men answered.

"They said it was their intention to have no more than five buildings and not to exceed 200 people," Smith said. "Those people will be the closest followers of Warren Jeffs."

Rumors have long persisted that Jeffs was planning to take some of his most faithful followers and move to a private compound in Mexico.

But FLDS attorney Rod Parker said Sunday he never has put much stock in that rumor.