Colorado City, Arizona
| Colorado City, Arizona | |
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| — Town — | |
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| Coordinates: 36°59′22″N 112°58′41″W / 36.98944°N 112.97806°WCoordinates: 36°59′22″N 112°58′41″W / 36.98944°N 112.97806°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Arizona |
| County | Mohave |
| Founded | 1913 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 10.5 sq mi (27.2 km2) |
| • Land | 10.5 sq mi (27.2 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 4,977 ft (1,517 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 4,821 |
| • Density | 460/sq mi (180/km2) |
| Time zone | MST (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 86021 |
| Area code(s) | 928 |
| FIPS code | 04-14870 |
Colorado City is a town in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, and is located in a region known as the Arizona Strip. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town was 4,607.[1] At least three Mormon fundamentalist sects are said to have been based there.[2]
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History [edit]
Colorado City, formerly known as Short Creek (or the Short Creek Community), was founded in 1913[3] by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway sect of the Salt Lake City-based The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The FLDS membership desired a remote location where they could practice plural marriage, which had been publicly abandoned by the LDS Church in 1890. On July 26, 1953, Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle sent troops into the settlement to stop polygamy in what became known as the Short Creek raid. The two-year legal battle that followed became a public relations disaster that damaged Pyle's political career and set a hands-off tone toward the town in Arizona for the next fifty years.[citation needed]
In January 2004, the local Mormon fundamentalist leader, Warren Jeffs, expelled a group of twenty men, including the mayor, and gave their wives and children to other men. Jeffs, a convicted sexual predator, stated he was acting on the orders of God, while the men expelled claimed they were penalized for disagreeing with Jeffs. Observers stated that this was the most severe split to date within the community other than the split between Colorado City and Centennial Park.
According to the Utah attorney general's office, this was not the first time Jeffs was accused of expelling men from the community; as many as 400 young men are estimated to have been expelled by Jeffs from 2001–2006. Most were removed for failing to follow Jeffs' rules, or for dating women without his permission. These expelled men and boys, many very naïve and sheltered, often wound up homeless and using drugs in nearby towns such as Hurricane, Utah.[4]
Most of the property in the town is owned by the United Effort Plan, the financial arm of the FLDS.
In 2007 the state authorities dismantled church ownership of Colorado City lands.[citation needed]
In June 2012, according to the Phoenix New Times, the city was sued by the "US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for religious and housing discrimination. Much of the lawsuit brings allegations against the "Marshal's Office" for policing on the basis of FLDS law, instead of enforcing state and federal laws. The unconstitutional policing allegations include the Marshals confronting people about disobeying FLDS rules, slaughtering non-FLDS members' animals, helping return underage brides to their husbands, and much more. The lawsuit also implicates the towns in housing discrimination — like the water authority's refusal to run water to new properties owned by non-FLDS members — and other town entities for routine denial of access to public facilities. Two other major complains in the lawsuit are: (1) In 2001, Jeffs issued an edict that all domestic dogs would be banned from the city. Less than one month later, in compliance with Jeffs's edict, marshal's deputies went to each household in the city and asked residents to turn over any dogs that they had in the home to the officers. The marshal's deputies then shot and killed the dogs in a slaughter pit a short distance from the city. Two of the marshal's deputies involved in this incident remain employed by the marshal's office. (2) On or about May 18, 2010, a group of non-FLDS children attempted to play at the public park. A marshal's deputy told the children that they could not play at the park and threatened them with arrest if they continued to play.[5]
On July 11, 2012, Isaac Wyler, who had left the FLDS and was critical of its polygamist beliefs, found a cat embedded alive in cement in a pipe on his property. The suffering animal was freed from its cruel prison, but died a few days later at the animal shelter. The marshall, a member of the sect, refused to investigate the act of cruelty. Isaac Wyler had found dead cats several times on his property, acts of harassment for leaving the sect.
April 2010 raid [edit]
On April 6, 2010, law enforcement officials in Mohave County, Arizona, and Washington County, Utah, served five search warrants seeking records from town officers.[citation needed] The warrants were served on government officials and departments, including the Town Manager, David Darger, as well as Colorado City's fire chief.[citation needed] As a result of the initial warrants, the Hildale-Colorado City Department of Public Safety was shut down, and emergency responders were prohibited from responding to calls without the approval of county officials. Firefighter Glen Jeffs indicated that the warrants referenced "misuse of funds."[6]
Police takeover [edit]
In July 2012, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, in response to allegations that the Colorado City government, including law enforcement, was taking orders from the FLDS, announced he was allocating funding to allow the Mohave County Sheriff's Department to take over law enforcement duties in the town.[7]
Geography and climate [edit]
Colorado City is located at 36°59′22″N 112°58′41″W / 36.98944°N 112.97806°W (36.989580, -112.978044).[8]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 10.5 square miles (27 km2), of which, 10.5 square miles (27 km2) of it is land and 0.100% is water.
Colorado City has the typical cool semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) of the interior Mountain West, with very warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters, typified by very large diurnal temperature ranges throughout most of the year. The hottest day on record has been July 5, 1985 with 108 °F (42 °C). Rainfall is lowest from April to June, but is never particularly high on average, though during strong extratropical low pressure systems as much as 5 inches (130 mm) may occasionally fall during a month.[9] The wettest year has been 1998 with 26.36 inches (669.5 mm), though only 2005 has otherwise received over 20 inches (508 mm), whilst the driest year since 1963 has been 2009 with 6.45 inches (163.8 mm).[9] Snowfall is relatively light; the most in a month was in January 1982 with 29.0 inches (0.74 m) and that winter had the most for a year with 46.50 inches (1.181 m). The highest daily snow depth was however on February 2, 1979 with 13 inches (0.33 m).
| Climate data for Colorado City, Arizona | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 70 (21) |
78 (26) |
87 (31) |
90 (32) |
97 (36) |
105 (41) |
108 (42) |
105 (41) |
98 (37) |
92 (33) |
80 (27) |
69 (21) |
108 (42) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 48.7 (9.3) |
53.7 (12.1) |
58.9 (14.9) |
66.7 (19.3) |
76.2 (24.6) |
87.2 (30.7) |
92.4 (33.6) |
90.0 (32.2) |
83.5 (28.6) |
72.5 (22.5) |
58.7 (14.8) |
50.3 (10.2) |
69.9 (21.07) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 23.2 (−4.9) |
27.8 (−2.3) |
31.6 (−0.2) |
37.3 (2.9) |
45.8 (7.7) |
54.5 (12.5) |
61.1 (16.2) |
59.9 (15.5) |
52.9 (11.6) |
41.3 (5.2) |
30.1 (−1.1) |
23.2 (−4.9) |
40.73 (4.85) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −9 (−23) |
−4 (−20) |
6 (−14) |
13 (−11) |
22 (−6) |
28 (−2) |
43 (6) |
46 (8) |
29 (−2) |
6 (−14) |
1 (−17) |
−9 (−23) |
−9 (−23) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 1.40 (35.6) |
1.41 (35.8) |
1.69 (42.9) |
0.92 (23.4) |
0.69 (17.5) |
0.41 (10.4) |
1.31 (33.3) |
1.63 (41.4) |
1.15 (29.2) |
1.02 (25.9) |
1.15 (29.2) |
0.79 (20.1) |
13.57 (344.7) |
| Snowfall inches (cm) | 6.1 (15.5) |
3.8 (9.7) |
3.3 (8.4) |
1.5 (3.8) |
0.4 (1) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.4 (1) |
2.7 (6.9) |
3.7 (9.4) |
21.9 (55.7) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 inch) | 5.7 | 6.2 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 2.1 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 58.5 |
| Avg. snowy days (≥ 0.1 inch) | 2.5 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 10.4 |
| Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration[10] | |||||||||||||
Demographics [edit]
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1990 | 2,426 |
|
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| 2000 | 3,334 | 37.4% | |
| 2010 | 4,821 | 44.6% | |
| source:[11] | |||
As of the census[12] of 2000, there were 3,334 people, 444 households, and 417 families residing in the town. The population density was 317.3 people per square mile (122.5/km²). There were 457 housing units at an average density of 43.5 per square mile (16.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.85% White, 0.18% Black or African American, 0.09% Asian, 0.21% Pacific Islander, 1.77% from other races, and 0.90% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.91% of the population.
There were 444 households out of which 83.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 85.8% were married couples living together, 3.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 5.9% were non-families. 4.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 1.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 7.51 and the average family size was 7.58.
In the town the population was spread out with 60.4% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 20.2% from 25 to 44, 6.3% from 45 to 64, and 1.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 14 years. For every 100 females there were 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.3 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $32,826, and the median income for a family was $32,344. Males had a median income of $24,429 versus $22,969 for females. The per capita income for the town was $5,293. About 29.0% of families and 31.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.5% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over.
The Colorado City/Hildale, Utah area has the world's highest incidence of fumarase deficiency, an extremely rare genetic condition which causes severe mental retardation. Geneticists attribute this to the prevalence of cousin marriage between descendants of two of the town's founders, Joseph Smith Jessop and John Y. Barlow; at least half the double community's roughly 8,000 inhabitants are descended from one or both.[13]
Government and infrastructure [edit]
The United States Postal Service operates the Colorado City, AZ/Hildale, UT Post Office in Colorado City.[14]
Education [edit]
Colorado City is a part of the Colorado City Unified School District. There is only one school, the El Capitan School (formerly the Colorado City K–12 Public School), in Colorado City. Many FLDS-affiliated board members resigned due to the political takeover of the district.[citation needed]
The Arizona state government attempted to take over the district in 2005 due to mismanagement.[15][16]
In addition to the district public school, there is a charter school, Masada Charter School, serving students in grades K-9. The charter school is outside of the Colorado City town limits in the community of Centennial Park.
The Mohave Community College North Mohave Campus is in Colorado City.[17]
Twin City [edit]
Colorado City is a twin city with Hildale, Utah, just over the Arizona–Utah border.
References [edit]
- ^ "Annual Estimates of the Population for All Incorporated Places in Arizona" (CSV). 2006 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011.
- ^ Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven", 2003. New York: Random House, ISBN 1-4000-3280-6
- ^ A brief history of the polygamists in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah
- ^ Jeffs was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list and eventually arrested on August 28, 2006 in Las Vegas."The lost boys of Colorado City" by Kimberly Sevcik, Salon, July 6, 2006.
- ^ Phoenix New Times
- ^ Demasters, Tiffany (April 6, 2010). "BREAKING NEWS: Officials shut down Hildale public safety department". The Spectrum & Daily News via thespectrum.com. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
- ^ Newcomb, Alyssa (July 7, 2012). "Outside Police to Patrol Polygamist Community". ABC. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- ^ a b COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA: Period of Record General Climate Summary - Precipitation
- ^ "Climatic Averages for the United States 1971-2000: COLORADO CITY, AZ". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
- ^ "CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING (1790-2010)". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Forbidden Fruit" by John Dougherty, Phoenix New Times, December 29, 2005
- ^ "Post Office™ Location - COLORADO CITY." United States Post Office. Retrieved on March 20, 2011.
- ^ State officials prepare to seize control of Colorado City school district | www.azstarnet.com
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "North Mohave Campus." Mohave Community College. Retrieved on March 20, 2011. "Street Address: 480 South Central, Colorado City, AZ 86021"
External links [edit]
Media related to Colorado City, Arizona at Wikimedia Commons
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