'Tent city' rises in FLDS stronghold


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COLORADO CITY — A large “tent city” has taken shape in the polygamist town of Colorado City, Arizona, in what outsiders believe to be a response to evictions being conducted because of unpaid taxes and fees.

“It’s like a feed lot,” said Isaac Wyler, a worker with the United Effort Plan Trust who has been given the unenviable task of trying to get sect members to pay what’s owed in taxes to the trust, and then handing out eviction notices per a judge’s order to those who don’t comply. “They’re going to make laundry facilities out there and shower houses and things like that and I couldn’t believe it.”

Wyler lives across from the full city block that has been converted into a camp — white tents and “FEMA trailers” enclosed by a tall white fence.

“It’s costing them so much more to do this project than to just pay that $100 a month; that’s outrageous,” Wyler said.

Wyler said FLDS members aren’t allowed to communicate with trust workers, aren’t permitted to read eviction notices and are discouraged from paying back taxes and fees to the trust directly.

“Pay your taxes, be nice neighbors and upkeep your place — it’s not that hard,” Wyler said. “The only thing that (appointed trust fiduciary) Bruce (Wisan) has ever asked them to do is sign something with the trust that says we have a working relationship together.”

Wyler said any money FLDS members have paid has not been turned over to the trust.

“They’re saying 'we’ve paid those occupancy fees, we’ve paid those taxes. They’ve been paid to the church,'” Wyler said. “These people believe that they’ve paid this, but it’s not paid.”


Pay your taxes, be nice neighbors and upkeep your place — it's not that hard. The only thing that (appointed trust fiduciary) Bruce (Wisan) has ever asked them to do is sign something with the trust that says we have a working relationship together.

–Isaac Wyler, a worker with the United Effort Plan Trust


Nobody is yet believed to currently be dwelling in the tents and trailers, but sect outsiders said they believe women and children — particularly boys — will ultimately suffer inside the tents.

“My biggest concern right now is the children. They could die in this cold,” former FLDS member Andrew Chatwin said. “They’re going to be putting a lot of young boys over there to punish them, to make them conform.”

The tent city remains shrouded in secrecy.

A KSL crew that attempted to get video of the outside of the camp had its field of view obstructed by a semi truck.

“I quickly noticed that the semi stopped and made the tightest turn I’ve ever seen a vehicle like that make,” photojournalist Stace Hall said. “The driver kept his window up, didn’t talk to me, just kind of stared out the window."

Hall said he quickly left that side of the camp and went to another, but the big rig showed up a second time five minutes later: “He takes a path as if he’s coming right for me,” Hall said.

That time the semi came to rest 2 feet away from the KSL camera.

“He has to absolutely slam on the brakes to get that amount of machinery to park directly in front of my line (of view),” Hall said. “There is no getting a shot at that point.”

Chatwin and Wyler said they believe the FLDS polygamist group is trying to play the “persecution card” by erecting the tent city, but he said families in the sect will suffer if they move into the camp.

“I don’t want to see women and children living under those conditions, not when there’s the housing available that there is,” Wyler said. “I’m probably going to figure out a way to put a sign out there that says, ‘housing, $100 a month.’”

Wyler said the sect will soon learn the state of Arizona is serious about the unpaid taxes, with hundreds of homes in the area coming up for tax-lien sales in 2015.

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