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BY TOM ZOELLNER, June 28, 1998, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
HIILDALE -- Government was once a sworn enemy of polygamy. Now, it is a benevolent uncle.
Welfare is a way of life in the polygamous communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City,
Ariz., where more than a third of the residents accept food stamps to support the huge families
their old-style faith demands.
``If it wasn't for government subsidies, these people couldn't survive,'' said Benjamin Bistline,
who has renounced polygamy, but still lives in town. ``There are people here with 15 wives on
welfare.''
Nearly every facet of life in this impoverished desert community on the Utah-Arizona border --
with a combined population of 5,274 -- is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), the largest polygamous assembly in North America.
Most girls marry in their teen-age years. Church leaders act as matchmakers, frequently pairing
girls with middle-age men who already have several other wives. Nearly all the land and houses
in town are controlled by a church trust called the United Effort Plan, which is governed by a
board of seven men.
Joe Knudson, a successful mortgage broker who lives in a huge, hotel-like house south of
Colorado City, contends welfare dependence is high because religious prejudice has forced
polygamists to live in a barren desert where economic opportunities are scarce.
``They've created a ghetto here and shoved [us] into it and shoved a few crumbs our way to make
them feel better about themselves,'' he said. ``These institutions have forced us into an area
where we have no other choice. . . . We have to bear the burden of a society that does not accept
something that is absolutely crucial to our faith.''
Former LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto in 1890 announcing an
official end to new plural marriages. And in 1896, Utah outlawed polygamy as a condition of
joining the United States, which was openly hostile toward the practice.
But today, federal and state governments have become enablers of a doctrine that remains
technically against the law. The Salt Lake Tribune found that:
-- Among towns with a population of more than 2,000, Colorado City and Hildale rank among
the top 10 in the Intermountain West in relying on Medicaid, which provides health care for the
poor, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which supplies food to low-income
mothers. The twin towns' reliance on WIC and Medicaid rivals only Western Indian reservations
and inner cities, where poverty has been a fact of life for decades -- and where government
assistance often has fallen short.
-- Fully 33 percent of the residents in the Hildale and Colorado City area are using U.S.
Department of Agriculture food stamps to feed their families -- a ratio far out of proportion to the
rest of Arizona, where the rate is 6.7 percent, and to Utah, where the rate is 4.7 percent.
-- The town of Hildale was awarded $405,006 in federal housing grants to refurbish 19 homes on
church-owned land. And Hildale Mayor David Zitting, a member of the FLDS Church, was
appointed by two Utah governors (Republicans Norm Bangerter and Mike Leavitt) to sit on the
state Housing Development Advisory Council.
-- Hildale ranks last among Utah towns for the average amount of federal income taxes paid per
tax filer ($651 annually), and it is No. 1 for the average number of exemptions claimed (3.62).
And while the average income as indicated in tax returns filed by Hildale residents ($14,500) is
dead last among residents of Utah's 170 towns and cities, FLDS leader and prophet Rulon T.
Jeffs is well-heeled. An 88-year-old Sandy accountant, Jeffs owns a four-acre estate at the mouth
of Little Cottonwood Canyon -- one of the priciest ZIP codes in Utah. Jeffs, who declined to be
interviewed, visits his desert church in a chartered Learjet.
Even though polygamy is explicitly illegal under the Utah criminal code and prohibited in the
state constitution, Utah law-enforcement agencies do not prosecute its practice. And government
agencies hand out welfare benefits to ``single'' polygamous women and their children, knowing
that those women are ``spiritually married'' in the eyes of the FLDS Church, and usually live
under the same roof with their husbands and sister wives.
Complex Attitudes: Feelings on polygamy run deep and complex in Utah. The state is dominated
by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which began excommunicating members it
discovered to be in ``plural marriage'' -- a policy still firmly in place.
Arizona authorities, with support of the Mormon Church, attempted to eradicate polygamy with a
failed 1953 raid on Colorado City, which then was known as Short Creek.
Many Utah residents have polygamous marriages in their own ancestry, yet regard the modern
practitioners as an archaic embarrassment and prefer to ignore them altogether.
The LDS Church takes a similar position.
``Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are not dissident
wings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,'' said LDS Church spokesman Don
LeFevre. ``They have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.''
Hildale and Colorado City at a Glance Polygamists in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and
Colorado City, Ariz., have low incomes, calling into question whether they can support their
large numbers of children without taxpayer assistance.
Yet the enclave at Utah's southern border -- which represents only a portion of the estimated
30,000 polygamists in the Intermountain West -- thrives like never before.
Colorado City and Hildale, separated by the invisible state line on dusty Uzona Avenue, were
sleepy ranching settlements with only a handful of families when a polygamous church arrived to
build its ``Millennial City'' in 1935.
Today there are more than 5,000 residents, nearly all of them believers in polygamy. There are
two colleges, a small industrial park, a school district, a power plant, a radio station, hundreds of
rambling ranch-style houses, and two city governments with a combined annual budget of more
than $13 million.
``The ability of the fundamentalists to not only hang on but to grow at an extraordinary rate
directly challenges the Mormon Church,'' Martha Bradley, a former Brigham Young University
professor, wrote in her recent book Kidnapped From That Land, which examines government
raids on Colorado City.
Ambiguous attitudes about polygamy have allowed Hildale and Colorado City to exist in a state
of fragile peace with the rest of the world, Bradley said. And the gradual loosening of sexual
mores in the latter part of the century also has been a backhanded gift to polygamists.
``We've got better things to do,'' said Utah Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Reed Richards, when asked
why anti-polygamy laws no longer are enforced. ``Do we really want to take our police officers
and have them going around peeking into windows to see who is sleeping with whom?''
There never has been a case of welfare fraud prosecuted in Colorado City or Hildale, although a
Washington County sheriff's deputy attempted to investigate persistent rumors of food-stamp
deception in 1994 -- only to be shut down by federal authorities.
Still, some are beginning to wonder about tax dollars used to support a lifestyle prohibited by
law.
``Children should not be penalized because of the behavior of their parents,'' said Roz McGee,
executive director of the Salt Lake City-based advocacy group Utah Children. ``But if certain
behaviors create a dependency on the public system, then it becomes a public-policy question
that must be addressed.''
Added Iron County Attorney Scott Burns: ``One of the reasons why polygamists have not been
prosecuted is because of the long-held belief that they aren't hurting anyone, that they are
self-reliant and only want to be left alone. If they're taking welfare to support their large numbers
of children, then they are hurting society.''
Although fewer households in Hildale take food stamps than in Utah towns of comparable size,
more aid comes to Hildale because of the large numbers of children in each home.
During a one-month period in the spring of 1997, Hildale had only 35 households receiving food
stamps while the southern Utah town of Parowan, for example, had 51 households receiving aid.
Yet one month's government spending in Hildale was $22,375 for 393 people while the 165
Parowan residents receiving help got less than half that amount.
For that sampling, the largest household in Parowan receiving aid had seven members, while in
Hildale the largest household getting food stamps had 37 people.
Defenders of Hildale and Colorado City note that many of the social ills eating up taxpayer
money elsewhere -- such as crime, homelessness and alcoholism -- are nonfactors in the peaceful
desert community.
Joe Knudson vowed to rear his family here because he did not want to subject his own children
to the anti-polygamy tauntings he endured going to public schools in Salt Lake City.
Knudson takes the long view on welfare, contending that it is the children who get the most out
of government-sponsored food programs, and that they one day will grow up to become
productive members of society.
``We're giving the world these great citizens, with one little quirk, but they are honest and
hard-working,'' Knudson said. ``Dollars and cents later, you're ending up with a great return on
your investment.''
Built New Life: Deanna Beagley grew up in Colorado City. Her father had two wives and 25
children.
One day, when she was 15 years old, two girls came up to her at school and congratulated her.
``We hear you're going to be our new mother,'' they said.
Beagley soon learned her church leader had a revelation that, within the week, she would become
the fourth wife of a middle-age man she hated. She sought help from the only neutral party she
could think of -- the principal of the local elementary school who lived in another town and was
not a polygamist. He adopted Beagley and reared her as his own daughter.
Now 24 and the episode long behind her, Beagley lives with her husband and three children in a
modest house on the fringes of St. George. She is one of nearly a dozen women living in the
booming golf-and-retirement city who left Colorado City and built a new life.
Beagley, who was raised eating meals purchased with food stamps, speaks openly about the
crucial role welfare plays in day-to-day life in Colorado City.
``I know women out there wouldn't be having as many babies if it weren't for the welfare,'' she
said. ``I remember being told that this was a work of God and it was up to the outside world to
make us flourish.''
To increase the size of her check, her father's second wife told government officials that the first
wife's children were her own, she said.
On paper, Colorado City is full of unwed mothers who do not have to report their husband's
income as their own, Beagley said. It is part of the local tradition, so polygamous marriages never
can be traced through public documents.
Husbands marry only their first wives in a binding civil ceremony. Additional wives are married
``spiritually,'' but the union never is legally registered.
``It's a way of life,'' she said. ``You get married, you go on welfare, and that's it.''
Deanna's husband, Norman, also was reared in Colorado City in the FLDS Church. He has fonder
memories of his childhood than his wife, but acknowledged that government largess slowly has
become the financial foundation of the once-independent religious haven.
``When I was growing up, there were a lot of good men who worked really hard,'' he said. ``And
now, the way things have been, there are people out there who use welfare as an excuse. Their
attitude is, `Where's mine?' . . . If you took a camcorder at the till at the community grocery store,
just to see how much money rolled across, you'd be surprised how much was real money and
how much was welfare.''
Arizona records indicate that the Cooperative Mercantile Exchange, the only grocery store in
Colorado City (which also serves Hildale residents), took in $26,466 from the WIC food program
in December 1997.
Hildale's blocky City Hall is home to a full-time WIC office, which the government rents from
the city for $400 a month.
``There is a large amount of foot traffic in and out of this office,'' Hildale's town attorney
acknowledged in a 1991 affidavit.
It is yet another irony of life that a community that prides itself on its social conservatism and
upright morality should appear, in legal terms, to be teeming with fatherless children.
In the eyes of the state, polygamous women who live in their own homes and apply for welfare
benefits are treated as single mothers -- regardless of how much income they receive from their
husbands.
``In terms of food-stamp eligibility, she's not in a recognized marriage situation, and she'd be
considered a single mom with kids,'' said Mason Bishop, spokesman for the Utah Department of
Workforce Services.
A former polygamous wife said she was always uncomfortable being defined this way.
``We were taught that we were part of an order that was above governance by man, so we were
above the laws of the land,'' said Janet Johansen, 40, who was once the plural wife of an FLDS
Church member in Salt Lake City.
``One of the reasons I left was because I had moral qualms about the lying and deceit,'' she said.
``I was uncomfortable living a lie: Who I was, who I was living with, where I was living, who
else was in the house, what kind of work I did. I did tell people I was married, but no other
details, except to identify my sister wife as my `mother-in-law.' ''
But welfare benefits in Utah and Arizona are distributed regardless of the personal practices of
the recipients, government officials said. Polygamy technically may be a crime in Utah, but that
does not mean its adherents can be barred from taking government money.
``The eligibility is determined under federal law,'' said Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. ``The state of
Utah does not have an opportunity to adjust who's eligible and who's not.''
The governor, who has been a major proponent of greater state control of welfare programs,
would not say whether he would change the eligibility requirements to exclude polygamists if
given a chance.
And Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull does not appear to be concerned about the welfare payments
pouring into Colorado City.
``It's important to note that these families are not getting their benefits through any illegal
activity,'' Hull said. ``They are not deceiving the public in an effort to get their benefits. They get
their benefits because they meet the legal eligibility requirements.''
Scott Berry of Salt Lake City, attorney for the FLDS Church, made it clear that church leaders
Rulon Jeffs and Fred Jessop did not ``want to participate'' in this article or speak to issues raised
by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Berry himself, however, contends that residents in the two towns could be qualifying for many
more benefits than they receive.
``The correct question is whether the degree of penetration is significantly different,'' said Berry.
``What percentage of the population that qualifies for the services actually receives the benefit?''
USDA spokesman Phil Schanholtzer said eligibility rates are calculated only on a national basis,
and no agency in Utah estimates such rates for any welfare program.
Utah's state caseworkers know exactly what's going on with a ``single mother'' at a Hildale
address who applies for food stamps, said Dexter Rees, the manager of the St. George office of
the Department of Workforce Services. But they have no mandate to deny benefits based on
lifestyle.
``A lot of people wonder why we turn the other cheek,'' Rees said. ``It creates more problems
than it solves when you go out and try to prosecute. We try to deal with with each person equal
and fair, without prejudice. If they meet our qualifications, then we will serve them.''
The Lord's Kingdom: Sixty-three years ago, a small band of excommunicated Mormons decided
the sandy valley at the base of the majestic Canaan Cliffs would be an ideal place to take a stand.
They would build the Lord's kingdom in the desert, away from the prying eyes of the sheriff -- a
sort of replay-in-miniature of the original settling of Utah by the Mormon pioneers.
Residents saw themselves as the last flame-keepers of polygamy, the ``true Mormons'' who never
had rejected the teachings of Mormon founder Joseph Smith.
``This is the only place, my brothers and sisters, upon the Earth that you can hear the fullness of
the everlasting gospel preached,'' said their prophet Leroy Johnson, who died in 1986 after
leading the church more than 30 years.
Virtually everybody who lives here attends one of two churches that unapologetically profess an
ultraconservative version of 19th-century Mormonism.
The FLDS Church has retained several distinct elements of mainstream Mormonism. Favorite
LDS hymns are sung, the Book of Mormon is quoted and the leader is considered a prophet.
There is even a Pioneer Day parade on July 24 to celebrate the entrance of the Mormon pioneers
into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.
A smaller polygamous church south of town -- the Centennial Park chapel -- is generally less
strict on social practices: It allows its members to wear short-sleeve shirts, for example.
The breakaway sect was formed in 1986 after infighting among the FLDS leadership erupted into
a bitter lawsuit about the church's right to evict dissidents from church-owned homes.
Sixth District Judge Phillip Eves in St. George ruled in 1997 that the FLDS Church may indeed
force residents from their homes, but must compensate them for any improvements they made to
the property. The church has appealed, arguing that home improvements are tantamount to
tithing.
As part of the blizzard of court filings that accompanied the lawsuit, the church's attorneys
outlined how the church's economic arm, the United Effort Plan (UEP), controls the houses in
Colorado City:
``Young men who have proven themselves worthy, approach one of their religious leaders and
request the use of a `lot' on UEP property. Faithful members are often asked to move from one
UEP home to another to accommodate those who the bishop finds more needy or more
deserving.''
Outsiders who venture into the twin towns are liable to get a curious stare. Girls clothed in long
Amish-like dresses ride bicycles down dirt roads. There seem to be children everywhere,
bouncing on trampolines and playing in front yards.
Hildale has the youngest median age -- 13.1 years old -- of any town in Utah, which is itself the
youngest state in the nation. And the average Hildale household has 8.55 people.
Boys typically do construction work after high school, many working long stints for companies
owned by polygamous church members. Any man without a job is strongly encouraged to
perform community service for the United Effort Plan.
The men wear long-sleeve Western shirts, always buttoned up to the wrists and neck to cover
their long priesthood undergarments.
Women wear simple print dresses that cover the knees. Men generally do not like their wives to
talk to strangers. And questions about religion or family size frequently are met with awkward
silence.
``The wives in this work are honored by the men,'' said Zitting, Hildale's mayor. ``They're not an
object like they are in the world.''
Most men keep their entire family under one roof, rotating between bedrooms on either a fixed
schedule or according to whim. All the ``sister wives'' have their own bedrooms, and are
expected to share the baby-sitting, cooking and cleaning of the entire household.
``The women believe it's necessary for their salvation -- and there's a lot of love in these homes,''
said a 51-year-old man, who takes pains to ensure his wives do not get jealous of one another.
``Some guys are so fair that if they buy chocolates for one, they buy them for everybody.
``In a lot of ways, it's more frustrating than rewarding,'' he confessed. ``If all you're in it for is a
sexual romp, you're in it for the wrong reasons.''
Construction Zone: Forlorn trailer houses sit next to lavish antebellum-style mansions here.
Every other home seems to be under construction -- a consequence of the FLDS Church's dislike
for mortgages.
Nobody can get financing to build a house, so they build only when money becomes available.
Additions often are grafted onto a house to accommodate the newest wife.
A few houses have no windows and seem blind to the sunbaked world around them. Stacks of
drywall and lumber lie next to bare foundations.
Public money was used to fix up 19 dilapidated houses owned by the church, Utah records show.
The first recipients were handpicked by Hildale city officials and then submitted to town clerk --
and powerful FLDS presiding bishop -- Fred Jessop for his approval, according to court
documents.
This seems to fit a pattern.
``In every instance that I can remember that it was made known that the religious leaders desired
a given outcome, that outcome was always achieved,'' said former Hildale Mayor Lynn Cooke in
a 1989 affidavit, produced in the midst of the lawsuit between warring religious factions. ``I
eventually came to the conclusion that Fred Jessop and the religious leaders were, in reality, the
mayor of Hildale.''
The housing-rehabilitation grants were administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
supplemented with Utah tax money. Hildale was one of only seven Utah towns to apply for the
grants when they were announced in 1987.
In order to get around the legal technicality that virtually nobody in Hildale actually owns their
own home, UEP officials drew up special ``lease agreements'' for tenants who benefited from the
housing grants.
Hildale's success in using the program even prompted Gov. Bangerter to appoint Zitting to the
Utah Housing Development Advisory Council, an appointment later renewed by Gov. Leavitt.
``These people have done better with this program than anybody else in the state,'' said state
housing specialist Kerry Bate.
Indeed, Hildale has made its windfall count twice, in effect, by using the public grants to buy the
intended building materials at local businesses affiliated with the FLDS Church, a review of
invoices shows.
``Hildale got in and got serious,'' said Zitting. ``We did our homework. What can I say? It's there
for everybody.''
Hildale's success at obtaining grants set off a brief discussion among some state officials who
wondered if giving tax dollars to openly polygamous families would amount to government
approval of the practice, said Bate.
But the officials eventually concluded that it wasn't the place of the state Department of
Community and Economic Development to apply any religious or moral criteria to the
grant-giving process.
``We didn't do any moral tests for anybody else,'' Bate explained.
Utah or Brooklyn?: In the basement of City Hall, underneath Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow's
office, agents from the Arizona Department of Economic Security conduct interviews for new
food-stamp recipients every Tuesday. The caseworker's schedule usually is booked.
``Don't you think a child who meets the qualifications in Colorado City deserves the same
benefits as a child who lives in Brooklyn?'' Barlow asked.
He conceded that government aid has made a better lifestyle possible for many polygamous
families. But he does not see anything unusual about that. Those taking food stamps or WIC
simply are doing ``the thing that Americans do,'' he said.
Still, the church and the community could live without welfare if they had to, Barlow insisted.
``We would survive, but we wouldn't survive at the level we are now,'' he said, sitting behind his
desk in City Hall. ``Like the rest of America, if it weren't for the aid of the government, many
people would be at a lower lifestyle. We'd have the structure to survive, just as the pioneers did
when they were driven out to Utah.''
Unemployment is virtually nonexistent in Hildale and Colorado City, according to U.S. Census
data. The Arizona town boasts a 0 percent unemployment rate; its Utah neighbor has a scant 1.74
percent of its people out of work.
How could 33 percent of the people in such a hard-working community be taking food stamps?
Barlow attributes the discrepancy to the large families and the lack of economic opportunity in
the barren Arizona Strip.
``We're living in an area that's a pioneering area that's barely getting the infrastructure in,'' he
said. ``We don't have high-paying jobs.''
The town's reliance on welfare has rankled some of its neighbors. One Colorado City man who
made a shopping trip to the St. George Kmart in November 1997 found a nasty, anonymous note
under his windshield when he returned:
``We are so tired of you in Colorado City and Hildale raping us honest taxpaying people,'' the
note said. ``Claiming poor -- no husband for your 10 children, getting WIC, food stamps, welfare
and paying cash for expensive things only we can dream of because we work and support you.
Get honest! God never said to lie and cheat and steal.''
Washington County Sheriff Glenwood Humphries said one of his deputies began a welfare-fraud
investigation in 1994, only to be told by USDA officials in Denver to cease the probe because it
was not his jurisdiction. The federal government apparently never followed up.
Pioneer Comparisons: Comparisons with early Mormons are abundant in Colorado City, where
there is a great deal of pride in self-sufficiency and ``pioneer values.''
The town's only radio station, KCAA, broadcasts a program titled ``In the Spotlight,'' which is a
blend of news and commentary sandwiched between KCAA's regular mix of old-time country
tunes and easy-listening songs such as ``Torn Between Two Lovers.''
The program's host, Tom Barlow, is free with his criticism of the federal government. One show
last year blasted the ``welfare state'' and cited alarming statistics about the size of the national
debt.
Tom Barlow, a long-haul trucker, acknowledges taking welfare to support his family, though he
will not be specific on how much he takes. He sees no contradiction between his anti-welfare
commentaries on KCCA and the high rate of welfare assistance flowing into in his own
community.
``This society we're in has got us in a trap,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``The dependence
we have on such things as hydroelectric power and fossil fuels has got people in a situation
where it's about impossible to raise families without government help. We're in a trap because we
have to obey a lot of stupid laws from the state of Utah and federal government.''
The radio station sits on FLDS Church-owned land, and it received $445,000 from the Colorado
City Improvement Association -- whose president and trustee is FLDS Presiding Bishop Jessop --
to construct and operate its facilities.
Tom Barlow is not the only one in town who has a paradoxical view toward government welfare.
Within the FLDS Church, the attitude toward taking public benefits has undergone a remarkable
change during the past two decades.
Former Church President Leroy Johnson used to preach independence from the public dole.
``Every dime you take from the government will have a string attached,'' he preached from the
pulpit on more than one occasion.
``Uncle Roy,'' as he was known, died in 1986, a year after Colorado City filed papers of
incorporation and became a legal city for the first time in its history.
The specter of a church-dominated town benefiting from taxpayer dollars had been raised before.
In Oregon, state officials refused to provide services or public money to the City of
Rajneeshpuram on the claim the community was under the direct control of a single religion and
its leaders.
A federal judge ruled against Rajneeshpuram in 1984, saying the state would be promoting a
specific religion if it allowed the community to incorporate.
Hildale had secured its charter long before this ruling. Yet, Arizona authorities allowed Colorado
City to incorporate a year after the Rajneeshpuram decision, making the polygamous town
eligible for a wealth of state and federal grants.
It since has received more than $1.8 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development to pave its streets, upgrade its fire equipment and build a water-storage tank.
(Hildale got $94,000 for its fire station.) A $2.8 million airport on the southwestern edge of
Colorado City was another government-financed development.
Community leaders cited isolation of the community and the need for economic development
when they persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to make improvements on what used
to be a simple dirt runway in the desert.
``It took us about 12 years of politicking to get this done,'' said airport manager LaDell Bistline.
The airport saw some 3,500 takeoffs and landings in 1997 -- about average for a small airport,
according to Bill Harvey of the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Dan Barlow, the mayor of Colorado City and a member of the FLDS Church, scoffs at the
suggestion that the airport was built for the convenience of church prophet Rulon Jeffs, who flies
a chartered Learjet into town for Sunday sacrament meetings when his health permits.
``That wasn't part of it at all,'' Dan Barlow said. ``He could fly into St. George just as easy.''
Jeffs, who lives in Salt Lake County, assumed the leadership of the FLDS Church after Johnson's
death in 1986. His financial know-how helped bring the church into a new, modern era,
observers said.
``He knew of all the breaks available and how to get around regulations and all the loopholes,''
said Janet Johansen, a former member of the church who now lives in Hawaii. ``Rulon Jeffs is
the one who moved the group in that direction. He's the money man.''
Governor Welcomed: Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington paid an official state visit to
Colorado City on April 1, 1996. His plane was met at the airport with a brass band and a cheering
crowd of 200 who turned out to welcome him.
The governor was treated to lunch at the high school cafeteria and gently lobbied by the town
fathers on the issue of cross-state certification of health-care workers.
Symington never had received a more friendly welcome from a town that wasn't on the campaign
trail, said press secretary Doug Cole.
It was an extraordinary gesture for a city whose previous experiences with Arizona officials has
been over child-custody battles and criminal-cohabitation charges against polygamist fathers in
the 1950s.
On one of the only other official state visits, which took place more than 60 years ago, Gov.
George W.P. Hunt was reputed to have remarked, ``Hell, if I had to live in this place, I'd want
more than one wife myself.''
The 1990s are, in fact, something of a golden age for Colorado City and polygamists in general.
The last time the crime officially was prosecuted in Utah was in 1963. A healthy economy has
eased some of the financial hardships of keeping more than one wife. Public opinions about
polygamy never have been softer.
``America is big enough for different concepts,'' said Dan Barlow, who, according to his
neighbors, has five wives. ``It has a way of balancing itself and healing itself.''
Once palpably hostile to all outsiders, residents of Hildale and Colorado City are reaching out as
never before to the outside world. The Mark Twain motel is now open on the highway through
town, catering to passing motorists. Dan Barlow is a member of the Western Arizona Council of
Governments, an important coalition of municipal leaders.
``The biggest surprise about Colorado City is how ordinary it all is,'' said Ken Driggs, a Georgia
defense attorney who has written several academic articles about the town. ``A lot of people go
down there expecting some kind of carnival sideshow and it really isn't.''