Tiny rural town is at war as cult survivors seize beloved forest using barbed-wire fence
Tensions are mounting in southwestern Colorado after a group describing themselves as Cherokee natives with links to a Mormon sect erected a barbed wire fence around 1,400 acres of forest they say they own.
Tensions are mounting in southwestern Colorado after a group describing themselves as Cherokee natives with links to a Mormon sect erected a barbed wire fence around 1,400 acres of forest they say they own.
Ranchers and locals who used that part of the San Juan National Forest for cattle and hiking have pulled down parts of the fence outside the town of Mancos, about 30 miles northwest of Durango.
This has led to tense confrontations with the group, the Free Land Holders Committee, which claims to have several thousand members and historic documents showing their treaty rights to the land.
Some members have past ties to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist sect led by Warren Jeffs, a cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault.
Ryan Borchers coils barbed wire that was part of a fence installed in early October in the San Juan National Forest north by a group calling itself the Free Land Holder Committee.
Patrick Pipkin, a member of the Free Land Holders Committee, says he represents thousands of members who lay claim to swathes of the San Juan National Forest
Local law enforcers have urged the rival groups to remain calm and for the dispute to be resolved by federal officials and the courts. The two sides were set to meet on Friday.
Patrick Pipkin, a member of the Free Land Holders, told DailyMail.com that members were part of the tribe of the Cherokee, and that their land rights were not being respected.
We were the habitants here before, we were here when the ships arrived on the East Coast. We didnt come from Europe, Pipkin said.
Were the habitants, and were here, and we want people to be able to understand that and have recognition also that were here in peace.
The Free Land Holders say theyll let locals and ranchers to use the land and its trails and roads, but that they planned to build a learning center to showcase treaty law and patent law.
Pipkin called for the US State Department to send an ambassador to negotiate the dispute.
The State Department did not immediately comment on the request, and DailyMail.com could not independently verify Pipkins claims.
He said members had no ties to Jeffs sect nowadays, having cut ties with the cult decades ago.
The Free Land Holders started building the fence on US Forest Service land over the weekend.
Angry residents — some of them carrying sidearms — cut down sections of the fence and yanked posts out of the ground on Thursday afternoon in the national forest.
Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin has urged people to stand down to allow the dispute to be negotiated between federal agencies and the Free Land Holders.
The fences shocked ranchers who graze cattle on the federal land and those who ride mountain bikes, hike and cross-country ski in area, which is known locally as Chicken Creek.
They fear the group will cut off access to public lands.
They couldnt 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, told The Denver Post.
Pipkin says he hails from the tribe of the Cherokee and that he has documents to prove the land belongs to his group
Locals use the San Juan National Forest for grazing cattle and outdoor sports, such as hiking and camping.
Members of the group talk down their ties to Warren Jeffs, a cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault.
Jeffs led a plygamous cult called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) and had many wives.
Jeffs is serving life in prison in Texas after being convicted of two counts of child sexual assault
But the sheriff and Pipkin say access has not been cut off, even though the fencing crisscrossed US Forest Service property.
Nowlin said some locals had got themselves all wound up with false information.
Nowlin, representatives of the Forest Service and the Free Land Holders spent hours Wednesday trying to negotiate a settlement.
The Free Land Holders agreed to halt their fence-building to give federal officials time to review their claim, said Forest Service spokesman Scott Owen.
Other meetings have been held to ease tensions, with dozens of anxious locals showing up.
Forest Service records show the 1,400 acres in question have been owned by the federal government since 1927, Owen said.
Nowlin said the newcomers assert they have rights to the land under the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave US citizens rights to land in exchange for living and working on it.
They also cite the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the Articles of Confederation.
These folks are just like you and me, Nowlin told The Denver Post.
Theyre normal people. Theyre not any type of vigilantes or anything like that.
Jeffs, who called himself a prophet, owned property across the southwest — including about 60 acres outside Mancos — that was put under court guardianship after his conviction, Nowlin said.
That $1.5 million property near Mancos was sold in 2020 to Blue Mountain Ranch LLC, whose owners are Pipkin, Claude Seth Cooke and Andrew Chatwin.
Pipkin said he was not baptized into the FLDS church, but he had family members who had belonged to it.
