The wider impact of the April 5 raid on the polygamous compound in Texas is beginning to be reported on. The mayor of San Angelo, Texas, (population: 90,000) offers a first-person account of his sleepy town's reaction to what will be remembered as a historic event.

Mayor J.W. Lown was helping with a Keep America Beautiful cleanup when he heard the sheriff's office wouldn't be able to participate. Lown had no idea a political whirlwind was heading for his town.

[Sheriff's deputies] were at the FLDS compound -- which believers called the Yearning For Zion Ranch -- helping to serve a search warrant. Frankly, I didn't pay any more attention to the matter.

... Honestly, I had no inkling just how big this was all going to get.

Lown's folksy account chronicles everything from the town's shifting attitudes toward the FLDS to the local windmill becoming the favored backdrop for national television network standups.

While we San Angeloans have an independent frontier "live and let live" attitude, we have zero tolerance about the abuse of children. In many ways, the YFZ clan has done the "outside" world a great service by helping us recall a basic American tenet -- that no religion or group has the right to deny any American the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. I'm sure I speak for the majority of my fellow San Angeloans.

Meanwhile, other news agencies are reporting that the raid has rattled polygamous sects as far away as Mexico. Reporting from the twin polygamous outposts of Colorado City and Hillsdale, The New York Times notes:

Rumors of an imminent Texas-style police crackdown — the authorities say none is contemplated — are among the new constants of life here, the historic heartland of the F.L.D.S. Some polygamists, who had considered moving to Texas, are putting down roots again here, even cooperating with the authorities. Others are speaking out publicly, trying to distinguish their forms of plural marriage (no under-age brides) from what the authorities say was practiced by the sect in Texas.

And the Dallas Morning News reports from Colonia LeBaron in Chihuahua, Mexico, that refugees from Eldordo, Texas, are not welcome in the historic polygamous colony. Lillian Tucker, a 40-year-old mother of 18 who practices polygamy, says she is against forcing minors into marriage:

The last thing we need here are a bunch of outlaws. I don't recommend anyone that's committing a crime or that's using religion to become a pedophile to come down here, because they're not going to be welcome.