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Work progressed Monday on the first floor level and what is believed to be the second floor mezzanine level of a building many FLDS watchers say will be the church’s first-ever temple. Workers poured concrete for the basement floor last week, shortly after the concrete forms came down around the basement walls. The basement appears to be 16-18 feet deep with concrete walls at least 4-feet thick, with structural steel reaching at least 50 feet into the air.

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Temple walls soar
upward at YFZ

Less than a week after workers at the YFZ Ranch finished pouring concrete basement walls, structural steel was going up to support the ground floor and upper floors of a large building many believe will serve as the first-ever temple of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The FLDS Church existed for decades in relative obscurity in the tiny community of Short Creek, on the Utah/Arizona border where its members held firm to their fundamentalist Mormon belief in plural marriage, or polygamy. The community grew over time and evolved into the twin cities of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT with a joint population of approximately 10,000 people, the vast majority of whom are FLDS members.

In recent years, the group has come under increased scrutiny, both from the news media and anti-polygamy activists. Together the two groups have prodded the once reluctant governments of Utah and Arizona into action. A series of criminal investigations, coupled with civil lawsuits brought by former church members against the FLDS leadership, sent the church and its reclusive prophet, Warren Jeffs, looking for a place to relocate.

With the purchase of a 1,971 acre ranch some four miles outside of Eldorado last year by YFZ Land L.L.C., a Utah based company headed by FLDS member and Jeffs confidant David Allred, the church seems to have found its New Zion.

Throughout the ensuing year, construction proceeded rapidly on a series of nine residential buildings, the largest of which measures approximately 29,000 square feet, a large meeting hall or school, a commissary and a series of barns and shop buildings.

About three months ago, construction of a massive foundation just west of the YFZ residential area gave many FLDS observers their first hint that the church was planning to build a temple. Soon, rock was being quarried nearby and a stone cutting mill was erected adjacent to the temple site.

On January 1 of this year, Jon Krakauer, author of “Under the Banner of Heaven, a Story of Violent Faith,” overflew the YFZ Ranch and photographed what he believed to be a dedication ceremony at the temple foundation. Less than three weeks later, a 16-18 ft. deep basement with 4-foot thick walls has been constructed and structural steel is reaching skyward to support the building’s upper floors.

Work was progressing Monday on the building’s ground floor and an upper deck believed to be the 1st floor mezzanine. FLDS-watchers, including some who have been excommunicated from the group but who still reside in the C-City/Hildale area, say that Prophet Warren Jeffs has always been fond of the original Latter Day Saints temple in Nauvoo, IL, and they speculate he will try to replicate the structure here.

While the building’s overall footprint roughly approximates that of the original Nauvoo Temple, some differences are already apparent, including the position and number of windows opening into the basement. Also, the original Nauvoo temple was supported by massive timbers where the builders at the YFZ Ranch are making good use of steel beams. Details of the Nauvoo Temple are available on the Internet at:http://users.marshall.edu/~brown/nauvoo/nt-parent.html. The page may also be accessed by logging onto the Success website and following the YFZ Ranch link.

As has been the case since this story first broke, neither the Prophet Warren Jeffs or any of his close followers are willing to comment. The Success continues to seek input from Jeffs on this story, or any other involving him, the FLDS Church or the YFZ Ranch.

The Eldorado Success invites Warren Jeffs and/or other leaders of the FLDS church to comment on this or any other story surrounding the FLDS and the YFZ Ranch.