There are great traditions in the United States. Those of exploration, of conservation, helping your neighbor, and countless others. There's also the right to practice whatever religion you so choose.
But that last one has a habit of turning greedy, ambitious, awful folks from just leading normal, middle-manager lives into cult leaders who run afoul of the law in so many evil ways. They get an ounce of power, the taste of power really, and they lead impressionable masses to certain doom. And when they finally get their comeuppance, those ordinary folks are left to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, often still brainwashed in one way or another.
That's exactly the case out of Colorado where a group of former cult members have, well, formed essentially a new cult and claimed they now own a whopping 1,400 acres of Colorado public land. This, obviously, has roiled locals as the group, known as the Free Land Holders Committee, has erected barbed-wire fencing around portions of the perimeter where people graze cattle, hike, camp, hunt, and use off-road vehicles like ATVs, UTVs, and dirt bikes.
The Free Land Holders Committee is made up of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not to be confused with the regular Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which has been quietly buying up massive parcels of land, the FLDS was centered around Warren Jeffs, the cult's leader who espoused polygamist ideals. But as with almost every polygamist cults, it was about power and sexual assault, rather than regular religious ideals.
Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence.
But after his arrest, his fundamentalist group was essentially abandoned. A group of them, however, moved to Colorado where they formed the aforementioned Free Land Holders Committee and announced that they owned this 1,400-acre parcel of land under, as you'd expect, dubious claims.
“We come in peace and honor,” Patrick Pipkin, a member of the Free Land Holders Committee told The Denver Post, adding “People are going to see it and understand. I know the bully tactics of what they are choosing to do. That ain’t who we are.” Well... The area in question, at least in the Free Land Holders Committee's question, is US Forest Service land and has been USFS land since the 1920s.
Colorado has been home to all manner of cults over the years and given that history, which is often one filled with pages of blood, trauma, and a wake of hell in its path, locals aren't taking this group's land assertions lightly. Residents of the area have already begun pulling down and ripping out the barbed-wire fencing the group has erected, as the fences apparently zig-zag their way through public lands that people routinely recreate on.
As we've covered before, fencing—especially barbed-wire fencing—can be a massive hazard to off-roaders.
But the residents are being asked to stand down, as both federal and state law enforcement officials are trying to negotiate with the cult. The group is asserting they own the 1,400 acres of public land under the Homestead Act of 1862, with the Forest Service looking into the title claim. After asking the public to stand down and let officials do their jobs, Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin told The Denver Post, "These folks (Free Land Holders Committee) are just like you and me. They’re normal people. They’re not any type of vigilantes or anything like that.”
Yet, Pipkin later stated, "The Forest Service don’t own the land. It’s not in their name. It’s just managed by the Forest Service. I don’t think it’s mine. It’s the Free Land Holders Committee who has the jurisdiction and the authority.” And after local residents, some of which who were armed due to perceived threats from the group, pulled up and pulled out the group's barbed-wire fencing, Pipkin asserted that it was those folks who were breaking the law, saying, "It’s crime being documented of vandalism and theft of property." That type of talk could lead to confrontation between the groups.
The sheriff has asked the public to stand down again, and offered that the group won't be installing any more fencing going forward. Rather, things will apparently get settled in court, though nothing has been filed as of this writing, and the Forest Service is still looking at the title claim.
