--- description: When a new neighbor moves into Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas (pop. 2,800), the customary welcome from the locals is a cake and an invitation... title: When the Polygamists Came to Town image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec1d82ea9abf56a2/698a4bc8457a52364dd69310/360_polygamists_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) # When the Polygamists Came to Town by [Hilary Hylton](/author/hilary-hylton/) Apr 17, 2008 4:00 AM CUT  Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.Tony Gutierrez / AP by [Hilary Hylton](/author/hilary-hylton/) Apr 17, 2008 4:00 AM CUT When a new neighbor moves into Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas (pop. 2,800), the customary welcome from the locals is a cake and an invitation to church or a community event. But residents found the newcomers distant and unresponsive to their gestures of friendship. Four years ago, posing as Utah businessmen, David Allred and a small group of companions said they had come to Eldorado to build a hunting and game preserve in what was once the Red Cheek Ranch. That wasn’t surprising. While most people in Schleicher County work in the oil field support business, some ranch or farm, and others have turned to eco-tourism offering mountain bike trails, wildlife tours and stargazing parties. Soon, enough, however, the community discovered Allred’s real plans. “We flushed them out in six weeks,” says Randy Mankin, editor and publisher of the weekly _El Dorado Success,_ circulation 1,200\. Sitting in an old office chair amidst an archive of yellowing newspapers and modern computer equipment, he says the massive construction at the Red Cheek site sparked suspicions. When the paper checked Allred’s Utah connections, it discovered that the men were in Eldorado to set up a large gated compound for the Fundamentalist Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a religious group that believes in “celestial marriage” — polygamy. The FLDS admitted to town leaders they had lied and townsfolk became wary. A year after the FLDS arrived, Eldorado city officials held a town meeting. “The citizens got a little restless,” Mayor John Nikolauk said. “We gave them a chance to talk and let them vent and then I said, ‘Here’s the deal. They are not going away, we have to do the best we can.'” One angry woman demanded the town leadership do something because the FLDS were practicing polygamy and living in sin. Nikolauk responded: “Two thousand years ago this young fella stood up in defense of a whore and said he who is without sin cast the first stone. I know there are some sinless folks here so why don’t you stand up so we can applaud you.” That calmed the anger. For a while too, the town feared that the newcomers would take over the local government. When that did not happen, the mayor said the community developed a “detente” with the FLDS leaders, who nevertheless assiduously kept non-believers off their Yearning for Zion Ranch. But Eldorado remained focused on the FLDS. The local paper, the _Success_, has been key to keeping it in the news. When Mankin and his wife Kathy (who is the office manager and reporter — their son covers sports) bought the paper in 1994 they were committed to covering hard news. The FLDS story became a steady feature on the paper’s pages. “It’s four miles from our front door and our job was to educate the readers,” Mankin says. The paper did more, uncovering FLDS plans for compounds in Colorado and South Dakota long before other, bigger media, and offering detailed stories on the history and practices of the group. While the _Success_ stayed on top of the story, Mankin’s neighbor Sheriff David Doran was quietly working his own leads, developing an informant inside the FLDS community, where few outsiders were allowed. Doran traveled to Utah and met with state and local officials, including law enforcement officers who were members of the FLDS community. The sheriff also paid visits to the YFZ Ranch because he was occasionally called on by its residents to be a notary or to remove illegal aliens the FLDS found crossing their land, and even once to investigate a traffic death, making him one of the few Eldorado citizens to see inside the compound. Mayor Nikolauk, a retired Air Force colonel and a member of the Upper Colorado River Authority, also had some contact with the FLDS leadership, especially when they ran afoul of Texas environmental rules. They were dumping raw sewage into one of the wide “draws” — the dry stream beds that can suddenly fill in heavy rains, sending water downstream to the Colorado River, a vital source for agriculture and recreation. The FLDS hired a Dallas engineer to design a sewage plant for them, but they wouldn’t allow him on the land, Nikolauk said, so an arrangement was made to haul sewage to the city plant. They always paid their bills — in cash. “I established rapport with two or three of them,” Nikolauk says, but few members of the community were ever seen in town at the feed store or coffee shop. On April 3, Mankin was driving past the sheriff’s office when he noticed a large number of black vehicles parked there. Curious, he called the dispatcher, but when the deputy started to talk, the phone was taken over by the Texas Rangers. The raid had begun. It had been a tightly held secret, known only to the sheriff. Court papers indicated the action had been prompted by a call from a young girl to [a child abuse hotline](/time/nation/article/0,8599,1730472,00.html "undefined") — the state has yet to confirm they have located her and an FLDS spokesman says she does not exist. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) then [removed 416 children from the ranch](/time/nation/article/0,8599,1730471,00.html "undefined"), more than anyone anticipated lived at the compound, Mankin said. Everyone in Eldorado suspected that one day there would be some kind of crisis. When it came, the community responded. The children were initially housed in Eldorado’s Baptist Fellowship Hall. “When they first came in the door, wearing long dresses, there were young ones carrying a kid, walking with a toddler and pregnant at the same time,” Nikolauk said. “They looked like zombies; there was no expression in their eyes.” Rosa Martinez, the owner of a popular local restaurant, filled up a grocery cart with food; a stranger gave left a hundred-dollar bill at the door of the church; Mayor Nikolauk washed dishes inside. Cotton farmer Charles Pfluger and his wife Helen, residents for nearly 40 years, helped as well and were deeply touched. “When those children went out to play you could hear those peals of laughter…” Charles Pfluger says, his voice choking a little and then trailing off. But Pfluger had to resist picking up a little toddler, afraid it might cause an incident. “There was a little boy about two feet tall with that ‘puppy look’,” he said. “I still see that kid looking at me.” For now, there is relief that the children have been removed, but sadness at the tears of their mothers. “The abuse is not going to stop and that’s my fear. My fear is that this will be for naught,” Helen Pfluger says. “But any way you look at it the kids get hurt.” Meanwhile, the FLDS, usually a closed community, has embarked on a media campaign featuring the grief-stricken mothers along with photographs, taken by the group, of armed Texas officers at the ranch. As of yet, no one has been charged with abuse as the TDPS tries to unravel a maze of family relationships — many of the children have one of four common FLDS surnames: [Jeffs](/time/nation/article/0,8599,1665547,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar "undefined"), Jessop, Steed and Barlow. Sources also say the children and mothers have been misleading the investigators by giving different names and ages with each interview. The scope of the crisis can be seen in the latest edition of the _Success_, in a stark page and a half black-and-white public legal notice, posted by the Schleicher County Clerk. It is two long, soulless lists of case numbers and names that serve as a cryptogram to the story. The public notice informs the parents of the 416 children taken by the TDFPS that they are being sued by the state — the 136 listed lawsuits begin with case “2779, in the interest of baby girl Jessop #26600765” and run on, some listing children by their full names, others with just a first name (“in the interest of Freddie #26609430, a child”) and some with no names at all, ending with a catchall lawsuit “in the interest of 330 children from the YFZ Ranch.” Like everyone else, Mayor Nikolauk is pondering tomorrow. “We are all asking the same question,” he says. “What’s next?” When the Polygamists Came to Town ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6912658/when-the-polygamists-came-to-town/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6912658/when-the-polygamists-came-to-town/"},"headline":"When the Polygamists Came to Town","datePublished":"2008-04-17T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T16:56:52.418Z","description":"When a new neighbor moves into Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas (pop. 2,800), the customary welcome from the locals is a cake and an invitation...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6912658/when-the-polygamists-came-to-town/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec1d82ea9abf56a2/698a4bc8457a52364dd69310/360_polygamists_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Hilary Hylton","url":"https://time.com/author/hilary-hylton/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec1d82ea9abf56a2/698a4bc8457a52364dd69310/360_polygamists_0417.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_polygamists_0417.jpg","caption":"Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.","creditText":"Tony Gutierrez / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6912658/when-the-polygamists-came-to-town/","name":"When the Polygamists Came to Town"}}]}] ```