Las Vegas, USA - A new family moved to Gilbert Lane early last year, a family unlike any other on the quiet street in northwest Las Vegas.
The women and girls wore long dresses and bonnets. The boys wore overalls.
‘‘It looked like 'Little House on the Prairie,''' said Lukey Corral, who lives next door. ‘‘We were back in the 1800s.''
When a neighbor talked to one of the women at the house, the woman said: ‘‘We are just Mormons. Well, we are different Mormons,'' neighbor Judy Donahue recalled.
The neighborhood eventually learned the new inhabitants were members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon church that believes polygamy is the key to the celestial kingdom of heaven.
For decades, FLDS members have lived in an isolated enclave on the Utah-Arizona border, insulated from the outside world and able to practice polygamy without government interference. That has changed in recent years as authorities have prosecuted several FLDS members, including the sect's self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Steed Jeffs, on charges related to sexual abuse of teenage brides.
Amid the scrutiny FLDS members have left their homes in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., about 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas, for anonymity and the booming economy of southern Nevada. Many work in the construction industry for companies in Las Vegas, Henderson and Mesquite.
‘‘They have made a lot of money down there,'' said Gary Engels, an investigator for the Mohave County, Ariz., attorney's office who has probed allegations of underage marriages and rape within the FLDS community.
Besides economic opportunities, some of the estimated 8,000 church members on the Utah-Arizona border may be heading to southern Nevada to dodge increasing pressure from authorities in Utah and Arizona, he said.
‘‘They probably fit in better there in Vegas than in those small towns because people don't pay attention to them,'' Engels said.
On Gilbert Lane, residents watched as several prebuilt homes popped up and residents who sometimes mingled with neighbors grew more reclusive.
‘‘You used to be able to see one little girl who used to come up to the glass window and wave at you,'' Donahue said. ‘‘Then they immediately put paper up over the windows so she couldn't. It was a little creepy.''
The home's residents wrapped a green mesh fence around the property, blocking what had been a clear view of the backyard, neighbors said.
Donahue recalled stepping outside one night and seeing a man at the house loading a pickup.
‘‘The minute he saw me, he closed all the doors on the truck, ran in the house and turned off all the lights,'' she said. ‘‘It's like they don't want you to see what they are doing. All very mysterious.''
FLDS teachings say anyone outside the faith should be avoided.
Still, FLDS followers have set up several businesses in southern Nevada.
Jacob Jessop, who owns the Gilbert Lane house, incorporated JNJ Engineering in Las Vegas in 2002. Engels, private investigator Sam Brower and others identified Jessop as an FLDS member. He visited Jeffs in the Clark County Detention Center after his arrest, according to visitor logs.
The company has earned millions of dollars in Las Vegas, including $11.3 million in contracts with the Las Vegas Valley Water District. All but one of the 16 workers on the water district projects used mailing addresses in Hildale or Colorado City, according to payroll records.
JNJ was awarded the contracts because it was the lowest bidder, water district spokesman Scott Huntley said.
Another major business owned by FLDS members in Las Vegas is NewEra Manufacturing, which was called Western Precision before moving from Utah to Nevada in July 2006.
‘‘Before they moved to Las Vegas, it was the biggest employer in Colorado City,'' Brower said. ‘‘They have a lot of government contracts.''
The company's founder, Wendell Nielsen, is one of Jeffs' closest confidants, and company President John C. Wayman owned the Cadillac Escalade Jeffs was riding in when he was arrested, Brower said.
A person answering the phone at NewEra refused comment.
Bruce Wisan, who was appointed by a Utah judge to oversee an FLDS trust known as the United Effort Plan, has sued Western Precision immediately after his appointment, alleging the company bought its building and land from church leaders for far less than market value.