Description: The FLDS Church purchased the ranch in 2004 for $700,000 and quickly began development on the property.When William Benjamin Johnson (who was fined for hunting without a license) purchased the property, he contended that the buildings were a corporate hunting retreat.Later, ranch officials disclosed that the hunting retreat description was inaccurate; the buildings were part of the FLDS church's residential area.
Currently the ranch, home to approximately 500 people who relocated from Arizona and Utah communities, houses a temple, a waste treatment facility, a 29,000-square-foot (2,700 m²) house for FLDS Church President Warren Jeffs, a meeting house, and several large log and concrete homes.There are generators, gardens, a grain silo, and a large stone quarry that was 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 built. The sect has been fined over $34,000 for environmental violations in connection with buildings on the ranch, mainly due to its failure to obtain the required permits for its cement-mixing operations. |
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