Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mayor of polygamist town resigns amid discord

Official, 20 other men ousted from community in fight with church

A mayor of one of the twin polygamist communities straddling the Utah-Arizona border has resigned in an apparent power struggle with church hierarchy.

Dan Barlow, the first and only mayor in the 19-year history of Colorado City, Ariz., submitted a one-sentence resignation letter Monday. The town clerk said a new mayor will be selected by the Town Council.

At an early Saturday meeting, Barlow and about 20 other men were ousted from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, a maverick offshoot of the Mormon church, The (St. George) Spectrum reported Tuesday.

Reading from what he said was a revelation from God, church leader Warren Jeffs stripped the men of their priesthood, their wives and children and their right to live in town, an unidentified source told the newspaper.

A woman who answered the phone at Barlow's house Tuesday said he wasn't available, then hung up.

The housecleaning came after months of an intensified power struggle between Jeffs and Colorado City's Barlow family.

Bob Curran, director of a Utah organization opposed to underage polygamous marriages, said the rift intensified after a July ceremony to remember the 50th anniversary of the 1953 Short Creek Raid, when Arizona authorities raided the town to enforce polygamy laws.

Barlow, who was a young man during the raid, dedicated a monument during the ceremony. Jeffs, it appears, felt slighted by the ceremony and ordered the monument destroyed a short time later, said Curran, of Help the Child Brides.

Since Barlow's resignation, law enforcement officers have been on guard.

Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan deployed four deputies and a canine unit from Kingman to Colorado City. He said they will patrol the town as "a prevention measure." A deputy from the Washington County, Utah, Sheriff's office has been patrolling the neighboring town of Hildale, Utah.

With about 6,000 residents, the two towns are dominated by the FLDS, a breakaway sect of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS church still teaches polygamy as a central tenet, a practice the Salt Lake City-based Mormon church abandoned a century ago.

Both Sheahan and Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said they were relieved there has been no violence, but law officers are still on guard.

Curran said some people in the community believe the Barlows won't go away without a fight.

"They don't see any way that bloodshed can't be avoided at this point," he said. "Both sides think the other side is the devil."

But Kevin Barlow, the town clerk and nephew of the former mayor, said media accounts have been overblown.

"The media have been feeding on their own frenzy," he said. "Everything is very peaceful and business as usual."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the state will establish a hot line for those who want to flee the polygamous enclave. In addition, more than 10 governmental and nonprofit agencies, including the Division of Child and Family Services and the Children's Justice Center, will help those who come forward, said Shurtleff's spokesman, Paul Murphy.

Review-Journal staff writer Brian Haynes contributed to this report.