Tiny rural town is at war as cult survivors seize beloved forest using barbed-wire fence

Tensions are rising in southwestern Colorado after a group describing themselves as Cherokee natives with ties to a Mormon sect erected a barbed wire fence around 1,400 acres of forest they say they own.

Ranchers and locals using that part of the San Juan National Forest for cattle and hiking have torn down parts of the fence outside the town of Mancos, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) 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tense confrontations with the group, the Free Land Holders Committee, which claims to have several thousand members and historical documents proving their treaty rights to the land.

Some members have had past ties to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs, a cult leader serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex abuse.

Free Land Holders Committee member Patrick Pipkin says he represents thousands of members who claim parts of the San Juan National Forest

Local law enforcement officials have urged the rival groups to remain calm and allow the dispute to be resolved by federal officials and the courts. The two sides were scheduled to meet on Friday.

Patrick Pipkin, a member of the Free Land Holders, told DailyMail.com that the members were “part of the tribe of the Cherokee” and that their land rights were not being respected.

“We were the residents here before, we were here when the ships arrived on the east coast. We weren’t from Europe,” Pipkin said.

“We are the residents, and we are here, and we want people to be able to understand that and also recognize that we are here in peace.”

The Free Land Holders say they will let locals and farmers use the land and paths and roads, but they plan to build a ‘learning centre’ to teach ‘treaty law and patent law’.

Pipkin called on 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 Pipkin’s claims.

He said members today had no ties to Jeffs’ cult, having severed ties with the cult decades ago.

The Free Land Holders began construction of the fence this weekend on US Forest Service land.

Angry residents – some carrying handguns – cut down parts of the fence and ripped out poles in the national forest Thursday afternoon.

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin has urged people to withdraw so the dispute can be negotiated between federal agencies and the Free Landholders.

The fences shocked ranchers who graze cattle on federal land and those who mountain bike, hike and cross-country ski in the 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 land that was more desirable to the city than that area,” Brad Finch, a retired teacher and firefighter who lives outside Mancos, told The Denver Post.

Pipkin says he comes from the ‘tribe of the Cherokee’ and has documents proving the land belongs to his group

Locals use the San Juan National Forest for livestock grazing and outdoor sports such as hiking and camping.

Members of the group talk about their ties to Warren Jeffs, a cult leader serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex abuse.

Jeffs led a polygamous sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) and had many “wives.”

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas after being convicted of two counts of child sex abuse

But the sheriff and Pipkin say access is not closed, even though the fencing runs through U.S. Forest Service property.

Nowlin said some locals were “completely mixed up with false information.”

Nowlin, representatives of the Forest Service and the Free Land Holders tried for hours Wednesday to reach a settlement.

The Free Land Holders agreed to halt construction of their fences to give federal officials time to assess their claim, Forest Service spokesman Scott Owen said.

Other rallies have been held to defuse tensions, with dozens of concerned 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 claim they have rights to the land under the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave U.S. citizens rights to land in exchange for living and working on it.

They also cite the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the 1783 Treaty of Paris, and the Articles of Confederation.

“These people are just like you and me,” Nowlin told The Denver Post.

‘They are normal people. They’re not just vigilantes or anything like that.”

Jeffs, who called himself a prophet, owned property in the Southwest — including about 60 acres outside Mancos — that was placed 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 had relatives who were members.