Group wants public library in area known for polygamy

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Living in a remote area of northern Arizona affords privacy for many who practice a polygamous lifestyle, but some in Colorado City crave connection to the outside world.

Melvin Williams, who leads a Friends of the Library group working to establish a public library there, told Mohave County supervisors on Monday there's a yearning for learning.

"It seems as though a veil of ignorance has been cast over our small community of Colorado City and surrounding areas," Williams said. "It's time for this veil to be lifted."

Williams' comments fly in the face of the teachings over the years of various leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who have urged inward focus and discouraged exposure to modern culture and mass media.

Mohave County Library District Director Robert Shupe said censorship was prevalent in the community's previous public library that "disappeared" when prophet Warren Jeffs gradually assumed leadership of the church before officially taking over when his father, Rulon, died in 2002.

Williams and other Friends members, however, are not members of the Jeffs-led FLDS and do not abide by all of its customs.

"How can the people be expected to think at all, let alone for themselves, if they are not given the opportunity to learn," Williams said. "Anyone worried about the lack of intelligence or narrow-mindedness of the people of Colorado City, help us broaden those minds."

Friends member Nick Dockstader, 18, said public library advocates don't want to be shielded from the world.

"We choose not to be isolated," Dockstader said. "We are building a library for the education and knowledge, for the young and old, for everyone, whatever faith or background they may be."

Dockstader asked county supervisors to support and fund the library effort. He said the Colorado City library would be operated under county library district protocols. He assured supervisors that it would be free of church influence and control.

"We are working to keep prejudices and any political or religious hierarchies that exist there out of this project," Dockstader said.

Supervisors Chairman Pete Byers pledged support for the library, provided it is free of FLDS control.

"The first time that I hear about censorship happening there, that library will be gone faster than your eyes can blink because we will not put up with that," Byers said. "We'll help you get that library there because I think that's the key to changing that community."

Friends members propose to establish the library in an old schoolhouse. They said more than 7,000 books have been donated through collection efforts in Flagstaff, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and elsewhere.