Leaving Behind a Polygamist Past: The Rebirth of Hildale and Colorado City

Arizona Family/August 29, 2024

By Mike Watkiss

Hildale, Utah — Mayor Donia Jessop is what you might call a Western pioneer.

She’s the first woman to hold Hildale’s top office. During her seven years on the job, Jessop has overseen a truly remarkable transformation in her town and adjacent Colorado City, Arizona.

“I think the good things that are happening here speak for themselves,” Jessop said during a recent interview in Hildale’s city offices.

“The businesses that are popping up here. We have a couple of breweries in town. Here in Hildale, we have a winery; if you haven’t been there, it’s absolutely beautiful,” Jessop said.

Add to that a brand new office complex just being completed, new multi-unit apartments, vacation rentals, excellent public schools, and a large shopping center—it’s a long way from where the community was not too long ago—when the two border towns were best known for the cult-control of polygamous prophet Warren Jeffs and his FLDS church.

Jeffs, who took control of the FLDS community following the death of his father in 2001, ushered in the darkest era in the community’s history.

Hundreds of large families were torn apart at Warren Jeffs’ orders—prominent men were exiled—younger and younger were girls married off by Jeffs—then there were the lost boys, hundreds of young men forced to work as children only to be exiled as they came of age.

There have been nationwide manhunts— high-profile prosecutions—that infamous raid on Warren Jeffs’ West Texas compound and the Texas trial that sent Jeffs to prison for life for raping two girls ages 15 and 12.

But all that was in 2011. Today things are a lot different.

“As a young girl growing up in this community, did you ever think you’d be sitting in this office?” I asked the Mayor.

“No sir,” she said. “I did not think the opportunity would ever arise.”

“I rebranded Hildale right when I got into office,” Mayor Jessop added.

“Rebranding was so important. It used to be “Southern Utah Deseret,” and now it’s “Hildale City-Welcome Home.”

Today, the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City are home to many people new to the area and hundreds who have returned. Many of the lost boys and others once exiled by Jeffs have come back in large numbers and are now building a new future.

“There aren’t many left of us here in the community.”

Esther is one of only a handful of FLDS faithful who still live in Colorado City and Hildale. Most of Jeff’s followers abandoned the community long ago or were evicted for not paying taxes.

“A lot of people...when they come back here...they see all the changes, and it hurts,” Esther told me.”

“We have our FLDS locals. They are still here, and we love them, but this town is no longer controlled by the cult, and we’re grateful for that.”

Raymond Hammon is the brewer and part owner of Colorado City’s now famous “Edge of the World Brewery,” a business that couldn’t exist under FLDS control.

Now in business for seven years, Edge of the World is a symbol of the community’s new direction.

“If you were to ask me about the people and what they are about—independent of the whole Warren Jeffs fiasco—you are talking about one of the most industrious and decent groups of people you could ask for,” Hammon said.

And perhaps nothing demonstrates the community’s changing dynamics more than the reaction of locals to a man by the name of Samuel Bateman.

“Oh, I tell you, the Sam Bateman thing...that was the community...standing up and turning any kind of information that they had into the police...into the FBl...because we will not put up with that in our community,” Mayor Jessop said.

Jessop has been a force of change during her seven years in office, helping her community move past its dark history of cult control... under the iron fist of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs.

That’s why Mayor Jessop says she and many others in the community were alarmed and angry when Samuel Bateman began attracting lots of attention—claiming to be a new FLDS prophet—driving around in Bentleys and Range Rovers—and gathering up nearly two dozen women and girls as his plural wives in his two Colorado City homes.

“It is hard to watch women, and children go through all the things that are going through, but we will not have that here, and so I think that really speaks to how this community feels...like don’t come here and think you are going to set-up shop and do those kinds of things...we won’t put up with it,” Jessop said.

Indeed according to the Mayor—long before Samuel Bateman burst into the headlines with a traffic stop in Flagstaff—before the FBI raided his Colorado City homes—and before Bateman insisted on a bizarre meeting with me in late 2021—it was people in Hildale and Colorado City who were sounding the alarm.

“Some of these girls Sam had were 12 years old, sleeping with forty-year-old men.

Ruth Stubbs was just 19 when she became one of the first brave women to stand up and speak out publicly about the many abuses of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs. That was 25 years ago.

Hearing the Samuel Bateman story for Ruth was like reliving a nightmare.

“They have been so told what to do their whole entire lives that they feel lost if they don’t have someone to follow.”

“It hurts,” said FLDS faith Esther, " because it’s almost like he took every possible negative thing that we... that was ever said about the FLDS and made it all a reality... and brought it all back on us.”

“Bottomline: Sam is not a guy that you guys condone?” I asked Esther.

“We absolutely do not condone Sam and anything that he did, and there were many FLDS that were willing to help bring him down and put him in prison,” she said.

“That was the community getting involved and saying “no” this isn’t happening here...this is not who we are,” said Mayor Jessop.

“So the public is clear...long before he was pulled over in Flagstaff ...a lot of people in this town were dropping a dime on Sam?” I asked.

“Absolutely.” the Mayor responded.

With so many people sounding the alarm starting in 2019, some now wonder why it took law enforcement until late 2022 to bust Bateman—questioning if that traffic stop in Flagstaff never happened—would Samuel Bateman still be trafficking and sexually abusing children?

“Should law enforcement jumped in sooner?” I asked Mayor Jessop.

“Law enforcement couldn’t have jumped in sooner...they had to have evidence...we’ve known that from the past...Warren Jeffs, it took so long to get that taken care of...you have to have the evidence.”

And now a mountain of evidence and a full confession in court about to send Samuel Bateman to prison for decades…and many in the community now hope this marks the end of this chapter of history.

“I want everyone that had stayed here but now live in a different community to feel like they were home…welcome home..for shows who had left and were coming back to the community…welcome home.. and for those who have never been here and have not roots…welcome home…we want you here.”

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