ELDORADO, Texas – In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 in 2003 into a bustling ranch with a white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy. Assessed value of the property now: $20.5 million.

How did members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints do it?

"We're investigating, that's for dang sure," said Jeff Shields, a lawyer studying the sect's finances.

SWEAT EQUITY

This is one factor: The men quarried limestone themselves and built the houses and other structures themselves.

STILL A MYSTERY

But where they got the money for building materials, dump trucks, rock-cutting equipment and other supplies is still something of a mystery. Some possibilities:

• A $114 million trust fund that once included all the homes and land in the side-by-side FLDS towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. The trust is now under government control.

• Construction businesses and other ventures run by sect members, including an aircraft wheel and brake manufacturer that holds a $1.2 million Pentagon contract.

Former members and experts on the sect say it encourages members to sign over any earnings from outside jobs to church leaders.

TAX BILL

The sect paid $424,000 in property taxes last year, or about 18 percent of Schleicher County's annual revenue. It is the third-biggest taxpayer in the county, behind two pieces of land that produce oil. Although FLDS is a church, it never sought tax-exempt status.

The Associated Press