![]() Her father, who owned a stucco business and sold cars on the side, had three wives. She grew up in a "humungous" house with 15 bedrooms and seven bathrooms. They work and pay taxes and are getting by.Įsther, a dark-haired 19-year-old, says she feels blessed by the way she was raised. They dislike the "lost boys" label and say it's demeaning. It's not a sentiment that can be switched off overnight. From childhood, they are taught that outsiders are wicked people, put on Earth to tempt them from their faith. "They make us look like weirdos," Ray says curtly.Īpart from the unfavourable press, Bountiful exiles have another reason to distrust a journalist. They say they have read articles about Bountiful that were inaccurate and hurtful. Daniel, who declines to be interviewed, is chasing Reno around the living room while Ray strums an electric guitar.īen Blackmore, 25, a cousin and fellow Bountiful defector, arrives, planting himself on the couch. The couple live here with their three-year-old son, Reno, and Daniel's younger brother, Ray. It's modestly furnished framed photos of their large families adorn every living room wall. It's a chilly March evening and Esther and Daniel Blackmore have finished dinner at their townhouse. Critics say it's a tool wielded to ensure women obey their husbands. Blackmore, who had ruled for nearly two decades, caused a split in the community, with nearly half the town siding with the deposed leader.īountiful's motto is "Keep sweet," which is repeated like a mantra among women. Jeffs, the sect's new overall leader, drummed Bountiful's powerful bishop, Winston Blackmore, out of power and replaced him with Jim Oler. Today, Bountiful remains a quiet village dotted with massive motel-style homes and front yards brimming with children.īut all is not calm in Bountiful, or in its U.S. Bountiful is the largest FLDS colony outside Colorado City and residents shuttle back and forth, especially young brides. The half-dozen men who settled Bountiful nearly 60 years ago were looking for privacy to practise plural marriage, which had led to their excommunication from the mainstream Mormon church.įLDS is based in Colorado City, a border town straddling Utah and Arizona, where it's estimated about 10,000 polygamists live. Logging has provided jobs for hundreds of men over the decades. Situated in a valley at the base of B.C.'s Skimmerhorn Mountains, its fertile orchards yield a bounty of fruits and vegetables. The founders of Bountiful couldn't have found a more picturesque spot to set up a cloistered colony away from the prying eyes of outsiders. And a few months ago, they bought two Rottweiller pups, Zip and Zoey. But the Oler men have banded together and look after each other. Life outside Bountiful was scary at first, Truman said. For a year, before moving to Sundre, he lived with the parents of a Creston girl he met at a hockey game. Wendel left home at 15 Frank was just 14. "I don't want someone to give me a wife," 23-year-old Truman says. Like the Blackmores, the Olers want no part of polygamy or assigned marriages. You got to work your ass off and they tell you what your life is." There they just tell you what you should be doing. "Even if I thought that, where is hell? I don't know."Īdds Frank: "My mother says I still have a chance. "Am I going to hell?" Wendel asks, with a bitter laugh. The sect's Utah-based leader, Warren Jeffs, has been quoted as saying: "Apostates are literally tools of the devil." But threats of damnation have only deepened their defiance. Among the faithful, apostates are considered more wicked that mainstream Mormons and non-Mormons. Still, 18-year-old Frank sent his mother flowers on Valentine's Day.Īt home they're known as "apostates," the name given to group members who leave the church. Some have been instructed by their parents not to return to Bountiful. The Olers are less talkative than Ray Blackmore, and angrier. ![]() Two are the younger brothers of Jim Oler, the new Bountiful leader. ![]() They work for Ken Oler, an FLDS member from Bountiful who operates a sawmill just west of town. ![]() The youngest, 17-year-old Wendel, sleeps on the couch. On Easter Sunday, they'll barbecue steaks on the back deck.įive of them live in a rented four-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac of mobile homes. On Saturday, the plan is to drive to Red Deer to look at dirt bikes. Tonight they're going drinking at the local hotel. The Oler men, formerly of Bountiful, have returned from the gym and are getting ready to party. It's Good Friday afternoon in Sundre, a windy town of about 2,000 people in the Foothills of Alberta's Rocky Mountains. ![]()
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