The Voice of Eldorado and Schleicher County Since 1901

PROPHET'S NEMESIS

Ross Chatwin looks down on a massive construction project at the YFZ Ranch some four miles north of Eldorado. The Colorado City, Arizona man says that FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs is building a townsite on the ranch where he plans to relocate some 2,000 of his most faithful followers. Chatwin recently won a court decision allowing him to stay in his home after the FLDS and its trust fund, the United Effort Plan tried to have him evicted.

Ross Chatwin Visits Eldorado

SEPTEMBER 2, 2004
Ross Chatwin, the Arizona man who refused to move from his home after being excommunicated from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by its Prophet Warren Jeffs, was in Eldorado this week. Chatwin, his wife Lori and daughter Kimberlina arrived here Monday morning and spent the next day and a half visiting with Eldorado residents. Tuesday morning pilot Doug Garvin took the couple up in his plane for an aerial view of the YFZ Ranch, the property that is being developed by FLDS followers.

Chatwin gained fame when he won a court decision blocking Jeffs, the FLDS Church, and its trust fund, the United Effort Plan, from evicting him from his home. Chatwin's home was built on UEP land and, according to the trust bylaws, is supposed to revert to UEP ownership when he vacates it. But, instead of following church orders and moving his wife and six children out of town, Chatwin did what no one before him had dared, he refused the Prophet's order.

When UEP lawyers went to court in May to have Chatwin evicted, they were handed a stunning setback by Arizona Superior Court Judge James Chavez, who refused to order the eviction until Chatwin is paid for the improvements he has made on the property.

"You're not supposed to stand up to the Prophet. His word is God's word, or at least that's what people in Short Creek think," Chatwin told the Success on Tuesday. "Most people out there hope they can be good enough that the Prophet will call on them to live with him in Eldorado."

Short Creek was the original name for the community now known as Colorado City, Arizona and its sister city of Hildale, Utah. Chatwin says people in the neighboring town of St. George, Utah still refer to the residents of that area as "Creekers."

Chatwin wasn't always an FLDS outsider, and he still believes in one of the church's basic tenets, that of plural marriage, or polygamy.

"I was faithful," Chatwin said, "and in return I felt I had the confidence of church leaders like Uncle Fred (Jessop). But all that changed when Warren came along."

Chatwin told the Success that shortly after the death of former Prophet Rulon Jeffs, and the rise to power of his son, Warren Jeffs, the new prophet's right-hand man discovered that he had not signed ownership of his car repair business, Builder Line Auto Works, over to the Prophet. "Sam Barlow was very upset to learn that I hadn't turned my business over to Warren," Chatwin stated.

Sam Barlow is the former Police Chief of Colorado City and is widely believed to be the primary contact person for Warren Jeffs in the Short Creek community.

Ross and Lori Chatwn smiled for the camera recently as they flew over the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. He was arrested last week, and charged with Criminal Trespass, when he changed the locks to the upper floor of the couple’s home in Colorado City, AZ.

Chatwin says that soon he found himself in even more hot water with the new Prophet. It seems that Chatwin and his wife asked a 17-year-old girl to join their family as a sister-wife, without Warren Jeffs' permission. Excommunication from the church, or repenting from a distance, as FLDS members refer to it, was soon followed by an eviction notice, ordering Chatwin from his home.

The UEP is reportedly appealing Judge Chavez's decision, a fact that doesn't seem to worry Chatwin. "The UEP was intended to serve the people," Chatwin says. "That means us as a group. We never planned for a dictator to come along and take everything away. The judge there will see through that."

Chatwin said his first view of the YFZ Ranch, where several more new structures are being built, was more impressive than he had expected. "They are building a city out there and there is going to be a house on every lot," Chatwin said of the ranch. "There will be two thousand people out there."

When asked how the FLDS Church or the United Effort Plan could support such a large community so far removed from its base of operations on the Utah/Arizona border, Chatwin replied, "Warren will milk his supporters until he can't milk them anymore and then he will forsake them. There are even stories that he plans to mortgage everything before he pulls out of Short Creek."

Chatwin claims that individuals in the C-City/Hildale area have been encouraged to incur heavy debt and to "max out their credit cards." He says that Jeffs is teaching his people that bankruptcy is an acceptable option for dealing with debt. "They are taught that the world is ending soon and that they will never have to repay the money," Chatwin said.

Responding to a question about why the FLDS chose to locate a new community near Eldorado, Chatwin said that the group probably liked the idea that Schleicher County is sparsely populated and that the valley where the ranch is located shields the group from prying eyes.

"That place is intended more to keep people in than to keep anyone out," Chatwin stated. "They have secrets and they don't want anyone leaving to tell those secrets."

But, Chatwin says he has an idea of how to expose some of Prophet Warren Jeffs' secrets. He hopes a landowner with property adjacent to the YFZ Ranch will let him buy or lease a five acre parcel so he can erect a 100 ft. tall viewing tower. "Secrecy is the only way Warren can control things, that's why he wants to have other compounds in Mexico and Canada," Chatwin told the Success. "That way he can shuffle people around and no will know what happened to them."

Chatwin says he is serious about building a viewing tower. "I wouldn't mind living here," hetold the Success. "The people here are good wholesome people and I think I could make some money here. People will pay to climb to the top and look inside Warren's compound. It would be a tourist attraction."

On a more serious note, Chatwin said that the numerous environmental problems cited at the YFZ Ranch by the Texas Commission on Environment Quality illustrate how the FLDS does business. "They will promise you anything then they will delay. Then they will promise you something else." Chatwin states. "But they really don't believe they will have to pay any fines. They think the world is ending soon and that they can put it off till then."

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