Colorado City, formerly known as Short Creek, was founded around 1920 by Mormons who desired a remote location to perpetuate the practice of polygamy that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned with a public announcement in 1890. On July 26, 1953, Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle responded to concerns about abuses by sending troops to the city to prosecute polygamists in a raid. The two-year legal battle that followed became a public relations disaster that doomed Pyle's political career and set a hands-off tone toward the town in Arizona for the next 50 years.
In January of 2004, the local religious leader, Warren Jeffs, expelled a group of 20 men, including the mayor, and gave their wives and children to other men. Jeffs stated he was acting on the orders of God; the men expelled claimed they were penalized for disagreeing with Jeffs. Observers state this is the most severe split within the community.
Most of the property in the town is owned by the United Effort Plan, an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Geography
Colorado City is located at 36°59'22" North, 112°58'41" West (36.989580, -112.978044)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 27.2 km² (10.5 mi²). 27.2 km² (10.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.10% is water.
