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What some of the people have been forced to endure in Colorado City is little different from living in a third world country.

Ten-year-old Benjamin Bistline moved with his parents to Short Creek (Colorado City), Arizona, in 1945 to join with a group of excommunicated Mormons who believed in honoring the law of polygamy as revealed by the Prophet Joseph Smith and instituted by Brigham Young.

Mr. Bistline has compiled a detailed history of the significant events that shaped and sustained this community from the beginning. He tells of the shifts in power, changes in leadership philosophies, persecution from outside forces – and from within.

Mr. Bistline’s goal in writing this history is to reveal that the original leadership structure of a Council of men holding common and balancing power has slowly descended into A ONE-MAN TYRANNICAL RULE over the people.

Bistline has observed:1) Older men being taught to take CHILD BRIDES before the girls are attracted to boys their own age.2) BOYS DRIVEN OUT of the community for competing with older men for wives. 3) Plural wives expected to apply for GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE as single mothers.4) Men out of favor are "EVICTED" from their homes with their wives and children reassigned to a more compliant man.5) Community members AFRAID TO DISOBEY the "Prophet" out of fear for theireternal salvation.

RESIDENT HISTORIAN Ben Bistline is recognized as the most credible and knowledgeable source of information about Colorado City. He knows more about the people, their motives, their family connections, their religion, their strengths and their weaknesses than any other pundit. Mr. Bistline is contacted by media and the press from all across the country, and has appeared on CNN and ABC Primetime. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

This book is so accurate!
I found this book very enlightening. I learned a lot about a group of people I knew little about. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know the truth about the society in Colorado City/Hildale. The author is not interested in sensationalism, but in reporting the truth. I moved to an area just south of these twin towns - found the people interesting and the book helps me to understand them better. They do have tv's, computers, etc. in spite of their commands otherwise - and they have vehicles and modern conveniences. They just dress like pioneers. Great book!

George Bush should stop polygamists
I feel bad for what the women have to go through in Colorado City. They are force to marrie, even when their under age. Men are having mulitple wives and dozens of children. The people over their were clothes from and old century, theirs no entertainment for them to enjoy like television, radio, computers nothing. A person from the outside world comes in at night and get the girls out of that city to live a normal. They were talking about polygamisty on Opera and Dr. Phil. Why won't lazy George Bush do something about this. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A thorough, detailed account of Leadville's fascinating history.
For anyone interested in the history of Leadville and Colorado's mining days, this book is a must read.Edward Blair has extensively researched Leadville's rambunctious past, detailing the history of the region and the fascinating people who lived there.Blair paints a vivid, moving portrait of the Colorado boomtown and includes a treasure trove of photographs.The volume has the appearance and layout of a college textbook.It has been an invaluable source of information to me in my own research. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

SUPERB!!!
I love this book. It is very well researched; as well as being a very fascinating read. It also is a great reference to find historic sites in Colorado. I really enjoyed this book. I rate it right up there along the lines of Colorado history books by expert historians such as Tom Noel and Phil Goodstein. This book is on my 'Colorado books' bookshelf, right alongside Noel's and Goodstein's.

Highly recommended!!!!!

excellent on the historical sites in Colorado
A well written book with a lot of pictures of the historical sites in Colorado.Recommend for anyone interested in traveling in Colorado. ... Read more

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Cañon City sits in a geological bowl surrounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Historically, it has been known as the prison capital of the world, with eight soon to be nine state prisons in the area and four federal facilities located 11 miles away in Florence. The first prison in Cañon City was built in 1868, before Colorado became a state, and was opened in 1871. Originally known as the Colorado Territorial Penitentiary, it is currently called the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility and holds approximately 800 male inmates. Cañon City has grown up around the prisons, and the area's colorful history is defined by daring prison breaks, infamous inmates, such as the Colorado cannibal Alferd Packard, and by the stories of the inmates and employees who have been part of the prison system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Prisons of Canon City
This is one of the best books, well written and excellent quality. The subject has been well researched, and the pictures add a wonderful amount of detail to one of the city's best pieces of history. ... Read more

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Eldorado, Texas, is being invaded by polygamists from Colorado City. Texas "outsiders" unfamiliar with what they do and how they do it are aggressively seeking information about the group. And they should . . .especially now that sexual abuse charges have been filed and the Lost Boys cast out of the community are finding advocates.The public needs to know how the one-man dictatorship developed and how maniacal Warren Jeffs rules today. He and his lieutenants are highly skilled and articulate business men who have mastered the art of deception and therefore pose a threat to any community they inhabit.

Colorado City historian Benjamin Bistline’s first deeply documented book, The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona was written to present the truth of the beginnings of the group and its original religious doctrine. Over the years, that doctrine has been verbally "rewritten" by religious leaders to support their claim of God’s approval of their one-man tyrannical dictatorship.For "outsiders" to whom Colorado City and polygamy are new, the first book was overwhelming with deep documentation. So we offer you this book, condensed, simplified, and easy to follow. People across America are asking how it is:That girls as young as thirteen can be forced to marry, and not even to young men but old men;And how it is that women are treated as chattel and belong not to themselves or their husband, but to the Priesthood; and how it is that wives and children can suddenly be reassigned to a "more obedient" man;And how it is that teenage boys are cast out alone into the world so older men can have more wives. And finally, how is it that tax dollars of American citizens are not only supporting many large polygamist families, but helping their communities expand.Polygamy abuses in America remain in the public eye thanks to Oprah, CNN, ABC Primetime, A&E Television and other media sources, including newspapers The Salt Lake Tribune, The Spectrum of St. George, Utah, The Phoenix New Times, The Arizona Republic, and the Deseret Morning News. With polygamists setting up an enclave in Texas, The Eldorado Success, San Antonio Express-News, Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and others are working to make their citizens aware. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A clear view of the real purposes behind a facade of religion
Colorado City Polygamists is a rare view into the real reasons behind so called FLDS in Colorado City. I worked in the Fredonia/Colorado City area during the 1980s and witnessed first hand what is so accurately portrayed in this book. It is pitiful that greed and avarice of misguided "leaders" allowed the true tenets of FLDS to be kidnapped by charlatans and neer-do-wells.

This is the first time that the reader gets a REAL look at polygamy and the distortions of old testament plural marriage beliefs.Believe me, I felt myself taken back to the times that I had to go to Colorado City on business and the constant observation by locals. Ben Bristline provides both, an excellent insight AND accurate portrayal, of life in Colorado City.

Lots of Info, but terminally boring!
If you are researching an academic paper on polygamy, this would be a good resource.However, if you are interested in the stories of polygamists as in "Escape," "Stolen Innocence," or "Daughter of the Saints," you should bypass this book.It is just a compilation of dry statistics.

BORING!!
This book gives lots of facts and figures...but perhaps too many.The book is boring.The author can't seem to decide how he feels about the issue.If the reader needs factual material for research, this is the book he/she needs.For reading, however, it's too dry!

Very Interesting
This is a very interesting book which helps explain why the polygamists believe what the do.It would have been helpful if there was a guide that stated the various peoples names and who they are.

A unique history of a idiosyncratic group
Ben Bistline's history of the First Ward of Colorado City is unique excursion into a secretive group dedicated to a non-mainstream set of beliefs and practice.The Colorado City Polygamists is the shorter version of this history and is more suited to the general (and in particular) non-LDS reader. While a background in restorationist religious history is useful it is not essential to enjoying this insider view of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (or FLDS).The book is full of names and events of the 20th century development of a utopian group dedicated to a practice now shunned by the mainstream LDS church. For a student of American utopian experiments this story has the typical and sad end of most American experiments in group living with the rise of charismatic and erratic leader leading the people into the wilderness in the nominal pursuit of purity and truth.Do not look for sensational from this book but a respectful yet tough telling of the inside religious story of a eccentric group of American utopians. ... Read more

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The Lost Cities of Colorado – Laurel Michele Wickersheim and Rawlene LeBaron. Life in Colorado’s long vanished gold mining towns is reflected in its old, frequently ephemeral, newspapers, and is now preserved in these pages. Census data has brought to life a cross section of the people who lived in mining camps and nascent towns. Information was also gleaned from old diaries, business directories, and photographs. The authors personally trekked across the Front Range, looking at deserted cabins and the remnants of Colorado’s gold rush, and have included directions to most of these ghost towns.

The book is arranged by county, and offers an overview of Colorado’s gold rush history, the miners who helped settle Colorado, and elements of the gold mining, but the main focus is on the lost cities and mining camps, along with stories of the miners who established these cities. Transcripts from original documents and photographs enhance the text.

An excellent resource for genealogists and historians; a wonderful guidebook for campers, backpackers and treasure hunters; and an enjoyable read for armchair adventurers! The authors are both members of the IN Society of Pioneers, the CO Hist. Society and the Boulder Hist. Society. 2002, 331 pp., maps, illus., index, paper, #L2190 ... Read more

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It was an authentic Wild West town, with stagecoaches, saloons, barfights, hangings, shootings, and vigilante justice.By the 1890s, Ca-on City had grown from its days of lawlessness to become one of the most agriculturally advanced areas in the country.Accompanied by more than 200 vintage photographs, author Larry Thomas Ward takes the reader through Ca-on City'ss early frontier history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An engaging and colorful history
Knowledgeably written by Larry Thomas Ward, Canon City, Colorado: Every Picture Tells A Story offers the reader an engaging and colorful history of a genuine "Wild West" town complete with stagecoaches, saloons, bar fights, hangings, gunfights, and vigilante justice. By the 1890s, Canon City had grown from its original days of lawlessness to become one of the most agriculturally advanced areas in the country -- only to see it end by the late 1940s. The informed and informative text is superbly enhanced with the inclusion of more than 200 vintage photographs -- most of which were drawn from the files of the Local History Center. A unique contribution to the growing canon of Western American History, Canon City, Colorado is especially welcome reading, and could well serve as a template for developing and presenting the histories of other frontier communities of the American West.

An engaging and colorful history
Knowledgeably written by Larry Thomas Ward, Canon City, Colorado: Every Picture Tells A Story offers the reader an engaging and colorful history of a genuine "Wild West" town complete with stagecoaches, saloons, bar fights, hangings, gunfights, and vigilante justice. By the 1890s, Canon City had grown from its original days of lawlessness to become one of the most agriculturally advanced areas in the country -- only to see it end by the late 1940s. The informed and informative text is superbly enhanced with the inclusion of more than 200 vintage photographs -- most of which were drawn from the files of the Local History Center. A unique contribution to the growing canon of Western American History, Canon City, Colorado is especially welcome reading, and could well serve as a template for developing and presenting the histories of other frontier communities of the American West.

An engaging and colorful history
Knowledgeably written by Larry Thomas Ward, Canon City, Colorado: Every Picture Tells A Story offers the reader an engaging and colorful history of a genuine "Wild West" town complete with stagecoaches, saloons, bar fights, hangings, gunfights, and vigilante justice. By the 1890s, Canon City had grown from its original days of lawlessness to become one of the most agriculturally advanced areas in the country -- only to see it end by the late 1940s. The informed and informative text is superbly enhanced with the inclusion of more than 200 vintage photographs -- most of which were drawn from the files of the Local History Center. A unique contribution to the growing canon of Western American History, Canon City, Colorado is especially welcome reading, and could well serve as a template for developing and presenting the histories of other frontier communities of the American West. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Quality Book...
I'm impressed by this local history. It is comprehensive, readable, and illustrated. Marble, CO supposedly had (and has) deposits of the greatest marble in the world. Yet by the middle of the 20th century, it was effectively a ghost town. This book answers why. Includes over 40 pages of bibliographic information and appendices. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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When Bulletin 478 was published by the United States Geological Survey, the big mines around Lake City, Colorado, had all been discovered and many had been worked for decades. Some of the more famous included the Golden Fleece, Ute-Ulay, Hidden Treasure, Pelican, Black Crooke, and the Golden Wonder. Many more mines had already been abandoned, believed to contain only low-grade ore. However, it was later discovered that rich ore in the Lake City area often lay in pockets surrounded, or hidden as some might say, by low-class deposits.As a result, the writings of John Duer Irving (who investigated the area in 1904) and the writings of Howland Bancroft (who was in the area in 1908) were combined and published in 1911. Both men were well-known and respected Colorado geologists of the time, who published many other works on San Juan mines. Lake City's mining was punctuated with boom and bust cycles up to that time; but much of the development of the local mines and in the local mining districts (the Lake and Galena Districts) is reported in this work, which also includes early maps, photographs, and production figures. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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This is a detailed map of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Complete coverage for the cities and surrounding areas, with an inset map for downtown. Plus most major tourist and business districts. When you flip the maps over, you will find a complete street index and a "city and vicinity" map of the entire metro area ... Read more