TUESDAY October 19, 2021: ‘The Secret Culture' by ZUMA Press award winning photographer Jack Kurtz who was given rare access to the lives of an FLDS family 10 years ago - These images are now part of the history of this now changed corner of Arizona: For generations, the dramatic and isolated landscape on the Utah-Arizona border has been a refuge for people who practice polygamy. Ten years ago, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison in Texas for sexual assault. Things changed quickly after that. Once the stronghold of the FLDS Church, Hildale and Colorado City area overturned its entire political leadership including electing its first woman and ex-FLDS mayor, Donia Jessop. The communities remain a patchwork of devout members of the FLDS Church. Both communities have seen significant cultural shifts in recent years away from the once-rigid controls of the FLDS (fundamentalist Mormonism is a belief system that is an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Colorado City opened its first bar. This Fall, the town will have its first wine tour in a recently opened modest vineyard. Welcome to ‘The Secret Culture'
© zReportage.com Story of the Week #810: TUESDAY October 19, 2021: ‘The Secret Culture' by ZUMA Press award winning photographer Jack Kurtz who was given rare access to the lives of an FLDS family 10 years ago - These images are now part of the history of this now changed corner of Arizona: For generations, the dramatic and isolated landscape on the Utah-Arizona border has been a refuge for people who practice polygamy. Ten years ago, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison in Texas for sexual assault. Things changed quickly after that. Once the stronghold of the FLDS Church, Hildale and Colorado City area overturned its entire political leadership including electing its first woman and ex-FLDS mayor, Donia Jessop. The communities remain a patchwork of devout members of the FLDS Church. Both communities have seen significant cultural shifts in recent years away from the once-rigid controls of the FLDS (fundamentalist Mormonism is a belief system that is an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Colorado City opened its first bar. This Fall, the town will have its first wine tour in a recently opened modest vineyard. Welcome to ‘The Secret Culture'
A woman and her daughter in Colorado City. Many of the people who live in Colorado City are members of the FLDS, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which practices polygamy.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, 86, stands next to his pickup truck while tending to the family farm. Colorado City and neighboring town of Hildale, UT, are home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Highway sign points to Hurricane and Colorado City, near homes in the the border communities of Hildale, UT and Colorado City, AZ. The communities are home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Young members of the Jessop family, a polygamous family and members of the FLDS in Colorado City, weed the community corn field.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, 86, is a veteran of World War II, a polygamist and member of the FLDS. He was arrested during the Short Creek Raid in 1953 and had his wives and children taken from him for two years.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Colorado City and neighboring town of Hildale, UT, are home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) which split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) after the Mormons banned plural marriage (polygamy) in 1890 so that Utah could gain statehood into the United States.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, 86, talks to members of the Jessop family, a polygamous family and members of the FLDS in Colorado City, as they weed the community corn field.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, 86, patriarch of the Jessop family, polygamists and members of FLDS, samples some of the raspberry and zucchini preserves a member of his family made at their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
A young girl eats a slice of watermelon during a picnic at the Jessop family home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Young members of the Jessop family, a polygamous family and members of the FLDS in Colorado City, weed the community corn field.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Girls take turns riding a miniature horse as members of the Jessop family, a polygamist family and members of the FLDS, work with their horses in a corral behind their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Members of the Jessop family, a polygamous family and members of the FLDS in Colorado City, weed the community corn field.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Members of the Jessop family, a polygamist family and members of the FLDS, work with their horses in a corral behind their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Members of the Jessop family, a polygamous family and members of the FLDS in Colorado City, weed the community corn field. The family grows about 30 percent of the food they consume and buy the rest at the town mercantile store.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Members of the Jessop family, a polygamist family and members of the FLDS, enjoy a picnic behind their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, patriarch of the Jessop family, with some members of his family, walk through a corral in the family's backyard after a picnic.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Jessop family members in the kitchen to prepare dinner in their home.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Members of the Jessop family sing and play instruments in the living room of their home in Colorado City. The family has computers and cell phones but have chosen not to have television sets, instead they put on impromptu concerts nightly. They have more than 40 instruments in the house.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
JOSEPH JESSOP, 86, and members of the Jessop family have a prayer service in the living room of their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Three young girls from the Jessop family giggle while sitting on the couch at home during a schooling lesson. Members of the FLDS pulled their children from the public schools several years ago, now most of the families in town home school their children.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Girls in the Jessop family finish their homework before home schooling starts in their home. The Jessops have almost 40 children, in grades kindergarten through 8th grade, in their home school.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Children in the Jessop family are home schooled by adults in the family, a picture of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs hangs on the wall behind. The Jessops are polygamists and members of the FLDS. Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In 2011, he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault, for which he is currently serving a life sentence plus twenty years.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
A woman and 3 children with groceries and shopping cart leave the mercantile store in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
A young girls with braided blonde hair watches as other Jessop children play in the backyard of their home in Colorado City.
© Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press Wire
Jack Kurtz (May 21, 1957 - October 19, 2021) was a photojournalist for more than 30 years and was ZUMA's senior photojournalist for the Midwest. Jack was a newspaper photojournalist for more than 2 decades, starting his career in northern Minnesota and ended up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he focused on immigration issues and the US relationship with Mexico. Recently returned from Thailand, Jack was based in Des Moines and covered features, politics and breaking news events in the region for ZUMA Press. Jack worked on projects in Southeast Asia, the American West, Mexico and Latin America and his extensive award winning photo archive and available at ZUMA Press.
© Jack Kurtz (May 21, 1957 - October 19, 2021 was a photojournalist for more than 30 years and was ZUMA's senior photojournalist for the Midwest. Jack was a newspaper photojournalist for more than 2 decades, starting his career in northern Minnesota and ended up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he focused on immigration issues and the US relationship with Mexico. Recently returned from Thailand, Jack was based in Des Moines and covered features, politics and breaking news events in the region for ZUMA Press. Jack worked on projects in Southeast Asia, the American West, Mexico and Latin America and his extensive award winning photo archive and available at ZUMA Press.
