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All images by Jim Urquhart / Reuters
Girls play on a trampoline near a home built into a rock at the Rockland Ranch community outside Moab, Utah, Nov. 2, 2012.
Jim Urquhart, Reuters — The "Rock," as it is referred to by the approximately 100 people living there in about 15 families, was founded about 35 years ago on a sandstone formation near Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Polygamy was a part of the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was brought to Utah by faithful Mormons in the late 1840s. The mainstream Mormon church abandoned the practice in 1890, but an estimated 37,000 Mormon fundamentalists continue the practice today and believe plural marriage brings exaltation in heaven.
EDITOR’S NOTE, Nov. 15: This post was originally headlined "Mormons practice faith from Utah cavern." It has been updated to more specifically reflect the small fundamentalist community depicted in these photographs.
Enoch Foster, a fundamentalist Mormon practicing polygamy, prays before a meal with his first wife Catrina Foster, second from left, and several of his 13 children from two wives in their home blasted from a rock wall at the Rockland Ranch community outside Moab, Utah, Nov. 2.
Fundamentalist Mormons, some of whom are monogamous and others who practice polygamy, harvest the community garden along with their children at the Rockland Ranch community outside Moab, Utah, Nov. 3.
Bradee Barlow, a fundamentalist Mormon practicing polygamy, holds her newborn daughter Lucy while she shops at the store room at the Rockland Ranch community outside Moab, Utah, Nov. 2.