On 26 July 1953 Arizona state police and National Guard raided Short Creek before dawn, arresting the men and taking women and children into state custody; children were held for up to two years. Photographs of weeping families turned public opinion against the state, the governor's career ended over it, and no further raid was attempted for fifty-five years. Inside the community the 1953 raid became foundational — proof that the outside world would come for them, and grounds for the secrecy, the home schooling and the distrust of every official who arrived afterwards. It is also part of why the 2008 Texas raid was handled as it was, by both sides.