Eldorado, Texas - What's so funny about a fundamentalist sect building a compound outside your town?
Just about everything, if you're Eldorado jokester and events guru Jim Runge.
At Saturday's third annual Eldorado Elgoatarod, itself a goat-themed satire of the Iditarod dogsled race, Runge plans to sell several items poking fun at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist sect that has been building a compound near Eldorado, 45 miles south of San Angelo.
Among them: ''Eldorado: Polygamy Capital of Texas'' hats, fake marriage licenses with spaces for multiple brides and VIP passes for what Runge has dubbed the ''Polygamy Games,'' which also will take place this weekend.
''We feel like we're not gonna run 'em off,'' Runge said, ''so we might as well have some fun with 'em.''
Although the group's polygamous practices in Utah and Arizona are well-known and recently have caused legal trouble for it, Eldorado authorities have said they have no evidence the FLDS has broken any Texas laws. FLDS members inside the compound do not comment to the media.
Runge is an equal-opportunity offender - his Hysterical District, which he set up at the south edge of Eldorado, includes a jab at The Gates, the giant, orange pieces of art set up in New York's Central Park this winter. Every summer, Runge parodies Spain's Running of the Bulls by running his own Texas-style bull session.
The jokes are just part of life in West Texas, Runge said.
''If they're gonna live out here, they'll have to put up with a little humor,'' he said.
The ''Polygamy Capital'' hats, which come in three color schemes, feature a silhouette of Texas in the state flag's colors, with the Star of Texas marking Eldorado's location. Surrounding the state is the proclamation, ''Eldorado: Polygamy Capital of Texas.'' Each hat costs $18.
Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success, the city's weekly newspaper, said he came up with the hat idea after visitors and reporters, in town to cover the FLDS story, asked whether they could buy any Eldorado souvenirs.
''There's really no souvenir'' for Eldorado, he said. ''We always have people dropping by the newspaper asking for an Eldorado souvenir.''
With few local tourist attractions to promote, Mankin said, he decided the FLDS compound, less than five miles away, could be a selling point. He made three dozen hats, he said, and thus far has sold nearly half of them.Not that the FLDS is all fun and games. Predictions by the group's leader that the world will end on April 6 - which is Wednesday - have put some residents on edge and raised concerns about an incident similar to those in years past involving similar groups in Waco and Guyana.
With all that to worry about, Mankin said, why not laugh a little?
''There are so many doomsday possibilities out there,'' he said. ''You have to lighten things up a little bit.''