For decades, the neighboring towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, were defined by secrecy, strict religious rule, and isolation from the outside world. Once dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the twin communities are now undergoing a profound transformation—one marked by openness, civic independence, and everyday freedoms long denied to residents.
Where prairie dresses, fortified compounds, and suspicion of outsiders once prevailed, visitors today find youth sports leagues, local businesses, social gatherings, and even a winery. The changes reflect the steady erosion of control once exerted by the polygamous sect, whose former leader Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting minors.
The shift has been so dramatic that last summer, courts lifted federal oversight of the towns nearly two years earlier than expected. The supervision had been imposed to dismantle what prosecutors described as a theocratic system that denied basic services and civil rights to anyone outside the FLDS.
“What we’re seeing now is the result of years of internal reckoning,” said Willie Jessop, a former FLDS spokesman who later left the church. “People call it ‘life after Jeffs.’ And for many of us, it’s been liberating.”
From Religious Rule to Civic Life
Members of the FLDS settled in the area in the 1930s after breaking away from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which formally abandoned polygamy in the late 19th century. For generations, Colorado City and Hildale functioned largely as a religious enclave, with church leaders controlling land, housing, schools, and local government through a communal trust.
That system intensified after Warren Jeffs assumed leadership in 2002. Former members say families were torn apart as men deemed disloyal were expelled and their wives reassigned. Public schooling was banned, sports facilities were removed, and daily life became tightly regulated.
“It took on a very dark, cult-like direction,” said Shem Fischer, who left the community after his family was broken apart. He later returned and now operates a lodge in Hildale.
Jeffs’ arrest in 2006 and subsequent conviction marked a turning point. Federal authorities later accused the towns of operating as extensions of the church, leading a judge in 2017 to place municipal governments and a shared police department under court supervision. Control of the church-owned land trust was also transferred to a community board, which has since sold property to private owners.
According to court-appointed monitors, the towns had to learn how to function as representative governments almost from scratch.
A Community Reconnecting
As the FLDS lost its grip, many followers left the sect or moved away. Today, practicing FLDS members are believed to make up only a small fraction of the population. New churches have opened, and people with no connection to the sect are moving in, drawn by the area’s natural beauty near Zion National Park.
For longtime residents, the changes have been deeply personal. Hildale Mayor Donia Jessop said the loosening of religious control allowed families long divided by church rules to reconnect. She recalled how a deadly flood in 2015 brought estranged relatives together in shared grief—and healing.
“We realized the love was still there,” she said. “Doors started opening that had been closed for years.”
Others describe a return to ordinary civic life. Isaac Wyler, expelled from the FLDS in 2004, said he was once denied basic services and ignored by police. Today, he says, religious affiliation no longer determines how residents are treated.
“It’s like a normal town now,” Wyler said, pointing to new supermarkets, banks, coffee shops, and restaurants that have replaced church-run businesses.
Progress, With Challenges Ahead
Despite the progress, the legacy of the FLDS has not disappeared entirely. Some residents say the towns are now grappling with challenges common elsewhere, including substance abuse. Authorities have also continued to prosecute polygamy-related crimes; in late 2024, a Colorado City sect member was sentenced to 50 years in prison for abusing underage girls.
Advocates who support people leaving polygamous communities say recovery will take time. Briell Decker, who was married to Jeffs as a teenager and later left the church, now works at a support center for former sect members.
“Healing like this takes generations,” Decker said. “There’s still denial, and a lot of pain, but there is also real hope.”
A New Chapter
The transformation of Colorado City and Hildale stands as a rare example of communities emerging from decades of religious domination. While scars remain, residents say the freedom to gather, worship—or not—and live without fear has reshaped daily life.
Once known primarily for secrecy and control, the towns are now redefining themselves on their own terms—no longer as symbols of isolation, but as communities rebuilding trust, identity, and a sense of normalcy.
