YFZ Ranch
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The YFZ Ranch is a 1,700 acre ranch just outside of Eldorado in Southwest Texas. It is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is about 145 miles southwest of Abilene[1] and 4 miles northeast of Eldorado, Texas. The Ranch was settled by members of the FLDS Church who left Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona under increasing scrutiny from the media, anti-polygamy activists and law enforcement officials.[2] YFZ is short for Yearn for Zion (also reported as Yearning for Zion).[3]
The ranch houses a temple, a waste treatment facility, a 29,000 square foot house for prophet Warren Jeffs and his wives, a meeting house, and several dormitory-style buildings. There are generators, gardens, a grain silo, and a large stone quarry that is being cut for the temple. The ranch is thought to be self-sufficient. According to preliminary tax assessments, about $3 million worth of buildings have been put up. The sect has been fined over $34,000 over environmental violations in connection with buildings on the ranch.[4]
[edit] Reasons given for building the ranch
There have been many reasons given for building the ranch. William Benjamin Johnson, who was fined for hunting without a license, insisted that the buildings were a corporate hunting retreat. [5] Later, ranch officials disclosed that the buildings were part of the FLDS church's new compound.
[edit] See also
- Bistline, Benjamin G. Colorado City Polygamists: An Inside Look for the Outsider (2004). A Colorado City historian presents the beginnings of the group and its original religious doctrine.
- Bistline, Benjamin G. The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona (2004)
- The Eldorado Success - the local paper
- Photos of the new temple (Via this blog)
