Piles of books burned in FLDS border town; would-be president cited in separate incident

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Piles of books — perhaps thousands — intended to be used for a new library were burned over the weekend in the polygamous community that borders Utah.

In a separate incident, an elder in the Fundamentalist LDS Church who has challenged Warren Jeffs for the presidency of the sect was cited for trespassing last week.

The large number of books being stored for a library were reportedly set fire on Saturday. Isaac Wyler, a member of the Colorado City, Ariz. community, said he went to survey the damage on Monday and discovered warm ashes and book fragments.

"There is a bonfire outside that clearly has books that have burned in it," Wyler said. "I can't say every book has been burned, because I haven't seen the inside. I can't get in there to see."

Bruce Wisan, who has been appointed by the state to oversee management of an FLDS trust, said the books were being housed in a old schoolhouse.

"It was supposed to be a library," he said. "The trust wanted to deed it to the county, but (one man) went to the county supervisors and told them that we shouldn't be taking church property and there would be lawsuit."

It is believed that there were thousands of books in the building, including some which had been donated by Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Wyler said he is not sure how many books were destroyed as he could not gain access to the schoolhouse. 

"My keys no longer fit the door anymore," he said. "They've blocked all the windows, you can't look in and see. My guess is there's not a book in this building."

Calls to an FLDS Church spokesman were not immediately returned Monday. Wyler was planning on reporting the incident to police and intended to file a vandalism complaint.

In 2008, ex-FLDS member Stefanie Colgrove began gathering books from all over the country from book lovers who heard about her idea for a library in the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City. There hadn't been a public library in the towns for years.

She moved back to the border towns to raise her family and decided she wanted a library for everyone. The rumor was that Jeffs ordered the old library closed and all of the books disappeared, she said. Local community groups offered to help start a book drive and collect used bookshelves.

"We have a lot of people very excited about it in the community," Colgrove said at the time.