Colorado City, Arizona

If you do not know where or what Colorado City is, just google it and you will come up with more information than you ever wanted to know.

Colorado City, AZ and Hilldale, UT are polygamy towns right next to each other on the highway from Fredonia, AZ to St. George, UT.    Years ago, I was going up to Idaho and passed Colorado City and decided to drive through it.  There was nary a person in residence to be seen.  I've decided there must be a signal to all residents if  stranger danger comes into and across the city line that keeps people hidden.  It was interesting.

On the way to Utah, Norma wanted to stop at her sister's house in St. George and spend Thursday night so we turned off at Fredonia and headed that way.   Stupid people that we are, we drove through CC.  It was like driving through a ghost town.  Not one single person was seen.  And what was new this time was that there were very tall walls around each and every house.  It was spooky.

This is what it looks like from the highway.

It's actually a cute little town.  They have cottonwood trees planted exactly whatever feet apart on most of the streets.

Notice the traffic and the pedestrians?

I had to take these pictures from drive-bys and most of them are kinda blurry.  And very buggy through the windshield. 

Walls everywhere.  I suppose they've resorted to this because of all the Warren Jeffs crap going on.  He's still in jail in Texas and these people still follow and believe in him with all their might and he is still running this town.  I heard the other day that Hilldale is a nicer town than CC because in Colorado City they are so radical.  I don't know it that's true or not.

We passed this huge garden that is probably community. 

Most all of the homes are very big for very big families.  Also, each home is "nearly finished" and it's kept that way.  I don't know why other than what I heard once and that was that if they don't finish their houses, they don't have to pay taxes on them.  I have no idea whether that's true or not.

Feeling closed in yet?

Across the highway there is this cafe and a 7/11 type of store that is owned and run by polygamists.  We went in there to get a coke.   The young man running the store couldn't have been nicer.  He talked and joked with us and was a pleasure to visit with.  The other young man with him that was seated behind the desk just stared at us and never cracked a smile.

The women that run this cafe are all dressed as you've seen on the 5:00 news.  We didn't eat anything there, though.  This mural gives a very different side of polygamy.  The three wives are beautiful, dressed nicely, happy, serene.   If I didn't know better, I'd think the background was Italy somewhere.

And boy, did I ever love this dish hanging on the wall.

This picture was taken last Friday when we left St. George to continue on back to PHX.  I told Norma to take a dirt road behind this house so I could get at least one picture that wasn't blurry.  So we stopped and I got out and clicked on this.  I wasn't this close.  It's zoomed in quite a bit.

We drove around by it and we didn't think anybody would be around because of the last time we went through.   But this time was different.   There had been a huge storm in St. George Thursday night and when we left about 5:30 Friday morning, it was still very wet back on this highway.   We were so surprised to see everybody out cleaning up from the storm.   It was never my intention to take pictures of the people.  At least the women and children.   The men can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned.    My heart goes out to those oppressed women and the sad children. 

We passed this house and I started to take a shot of the wall again, but two little kids came into the shot.  I will show this one because her face cannot be seen.   She was just adorable with that braided blond hair and the dress and that homemade wagon.   She had a little brother about two who came around from behind the gate,  saw us and froze.  There was pure terror in his eyes.   It was almost like he didn't know what to do and knew that we were horrible strangers not to be dealt with.   The fear in his eyes just captured me, but I didn't want to show him on this post. 

One house we went by there were children out front and on the balcony of the house there was a mother with a little boy and she was doing what any mother does.  Loving that little guy and showing him things down in the yard.    The other kids stared at us and then I heard one of them say --- "Mama Mama...They're taking pictures!"   Which I actually wasn't then.  I suppose they have this happen every day there.  We passed a group of girls and I smiled from the car and waved, but they were stone faced. 

The children have all my sympathy.  The women?  I don't know.  The men?  I want them all shot in the you know where.  Warren Jeffs especially.  The men are sexual predators.  In every sense of the word.  And how the women abide with that is beyond my understanding.