Town worried ranch is home to polygamists
 Authorities have no grounds for investigation, sheriff says
 
By MIKE SACCONE
The Daily Sentinel - Grand Junction, Colorado
 
CRAWFORD — Residents in southeastern Delta County have alerted local law enforcement a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon group might have moved into the area.

Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee said several Crawford residents have contacted his office about a series of structures, including a lengthy privacy fence, that have sprung up on a 35-acre property nearly 10 miles west of here.

"The activity with the fence and some of these things are naturally drawing the curiosity of the local citizens, but certainly nothing that would require us to conduct an investigation," McKee said.

He said neighbors have been worried the property, located west of 3350 Road and south of B50 Road, has become home to a compound housing a polygamous fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church, similar to the one recently raided by state law enforcement in western Texas.

"There’s been some information relayed to us, not information we went out and sought, that there are people living there that have been connected to other groups that were a part of that religious group," he said.

McKee said he has not visited the property nor met with the owner, who public records identify as Neph Barlow.

Barlow’s mailing address, according to Delta County Assessor’s Office records, is a post office box in Henderson, Nev.

Federal law enforcement officials in mid-2006 told a Salt Lake City TV station, KSL-TV, construction firms and employees in Mesquite, Nev., have helped fund the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and benefit its leader, Warren Jeffs.

Jeffs, the "prophet" of the polygamists' breakaway sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison last year after a jury convicted him of being an accomplice to rape for his involvement in an arranged marriage. He faces similar charges in Arizona for his suspected involvement in three arranged marriages between young girls and older men.

Barlow is listed in Nevada State Contractors Board and Nevada secretary of state records as president or treasurer of several Nevada-based construction firms.

Barlow, who is not listed in any Colorado or Nevada phone directories, could not be reached for comment.

Roger Church, manager of the Red Canyon Ranch, located south of the Barlow property, said he has not had any contact with his neighbors.

He said the privacy fence is a recent addition to the former ranch.

"They’ve been working on it for several months," Church said.

Barlow, according to county records, bought the property for $275,000 in June 2007.

At that time, the assessor noted there were two residential buildings on the property. Assessor records also show the property had a corral and garage.

A large, multi-story structure is under construction and visible from the property’s northern driveway.

Delta County does not require permits for any new construction in unincorporated areas.

McKee said he is aware Barlow’s land has come under additional scrutiny from neighbors following this week’s raids on a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in western Texas.

He emphasized that his agency is not investigating Barlow nor what is going on with Barlow’s land.

Texas authorities searched a compound in the western region of their state this week after receiving a call from what they believe to be a 16-year-old child bride and rape victim.

The raid, which included breaching the group’s temple on the 1,700-acre compound, yielded more than 400 children, mostly girls, who were taken into protective custody.

If Crawford is home to either the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or one of its splinter groups, it will not be alone in Colorado.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday that Montezuma County authorities are watching roughly 100 acres of property the sect owns near Mancos.

Like Delta County, no building permits are required in Montezuma County so authorities there cannot be sure exactly what construction has taken place on the two parcels.
 
gjsentinel.com
Originally published Friday, April 11, 2008
 
Back