A conflict brewing in southwestern Colorado pits ranchers and outdoors enthusiasts against survivors of former polygamist leader Warren Jeffs after the latter group declared itself the Free Land Holders Committee and began fencing off about 1,000 acres of public U.S. Forest Service land.
Angry residents were planning to gather at 1 p.m. Thursday on land outside the town of Mancos in the San Juan National Forest to begin tearing down the fences with heavy equipment, even as Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin implores people to stand down to allow the dispute to be negotiated between federal agencies and the Free Land Holders.
The Free Land Holders Committee began building the fences on Saturday, alarming ranchers who use the federal land for cattle grazing and those who ride mountain bikes, hike and cross-country ski in area known locally as Chicken Creek. They fear the group will cut off access to public lands.
“They couldn’t have picked a piece of ground that was more beloved by the town than that area,” said Brad Finch, a retired teacher and firefighter who lives outside Mancos and uses the national forest almost daily to hike, bike or ski.
But the sheriff insists access has not been cut off, even though barbed-wire fencing now crisscrosses forest service property.
“There’s no public access being denied,” Nowlin said. “I’m just trying to head off all these people that have got themselves all wound up with false information.”
Nowlin spent hours Wednesday trying to negotiate a settlement between the U.S. Forest Service and the land holders group, and issued a news release late in the day imploring residents to “refrain from gathering in the area and/or attempting to remove fencing.” The Forest Service and sheriff’s office also met Wednesday night with local leaders.
But on Thursday morning, members of a local Facebook group posted that they are still planning to tear down fences, and The Denver Post spoke with two people who said the planned tear-down was still happening.
“Safety protocols will be discussed on (site),” a member of the Facebook group wrote. “Our goal is to remove wire and T posts. We want to do this safely and be respectful to the land that has already been damaged.”
Nowlin said the people building the fences are not members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS. However, many of them were born into the sect led by Jeffs and escaped once the leader was imprisoned in Texas for rape in his role in the arranged marriage of teenage cousins. He said they claim to be Free Land Holders and have rights to the Forest Service property under the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave U.S. citizens rights to land in exchange for living and working on it.
“These folks are just like you and me,” Nowlin said. “They’re normal people. They’re not any type of vigilantes or anything like that.”
Jeffs owned property across the southwest, including about 160 acres outside Mancos, that was put under court guardianship after his conviction, Nowlin said. That property was sold at a courthouse auction a few years ago to people who were Jeffs’ victims, he said.
Patrick Pipkin, who identified himself to The Post as part of the Free Land Holders Committee and is one of the private landowners, confirmed the fences were being built. Pipkin said he was not baptized into the FLDS church, but he had family members who belonged to it.
Pipkin also co-owns former Jeffs property in South Dakota.
“The Forest Service don’t own the land,” Pipkin said. “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.”
When asked what the Free Land Holders Committee is and who its members are, Pipkin recommended reading the Declaration of Independence. He said there are “thousands of us.”
“We show up in peace,” Pipkin said. “We show up in honor, integrity and our word of who we are. We can show that through paperwork and correspondence if people have an open mind.”
But Finch, who said he spoke Thursday morning with another member of Pipkin’s group to ask them to take down the fence, said he is worried about how events will unfold when one group insists public land belongs to them.
“As long as they perceive it as private land, they are very unpredictable and have tremendous latitude to act in ways that are very dangerous to people,” he said.
Finch heard about the fence on Sunday and then rode his mountain bike up a trail to see it for himself. He said the fence is about 4.5 feet tall with barbed wire running through it. He volunteers with the Chicken Creek Nordic Association, which maintains 13 miles of trails for winter cross-country skiing, and he said the fence crosses that trail five times.
The Public Land Holders have left gaps for hikers and bicycles to pass, but Finch said they were unaware of the cross-country skiing group until he spoke to them.
Finch also worries the fence also could cut off passages for elk and deer roaming through the area, especially for their fawns and calves.
Locals are frustrated at what they see as a lack of action by the sheriff or the U.S. Forest Service, Finch said.
“These folks have clearly illegally built this fence on public land and they have negotiated an agreement that allows the fence to stay in place,” he said. “People in the community do not accept that agreement. To them, the fence is a clear violation of public land regulation and probably some sort of criminal law.”
However, Nowlin said the fence-building is pausing and the Free Land Holders have agreed to let a federal court settle the dispute. But that could take some time, as no lawsuits have yet been filed.
“I don’t want any damage done to public land or private land,” Nowlin said. “Let them work it out in court. That’s OK.”
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