ELDORADO, Texas — Before the self-proclaimed prophet of a sect of Mormon polygamists was indicted on two felony counts and became a wanted man, Warren Jeffs predicted that on Wednesday, April 6, 2005, the world would end.

On April 5, a notice appeared on the Eldorado Chamber of Commerce marquee:

"Tomorrow Has Been Canceled."

Residents of this small Texas community trust the sign board outside the county courthouse to keep them informed about local news and events. So when the forewarning appeared, the sheriff's phone began to ring.

The message had unsettled some folks.

Sheriff David Doran said, "People called and asked, 'Do we need to be concerned?' "

He assured them the apocalypse wasn't at hand.

The sheriff recognized the mischief as the tongue-in-cheek handiwork of the town's court jester and its No. 1 promoter.

Jim Runge is a 61-year-old Eldorado native and a true West Texas character.

Who else would stand on a street corner as he did one morning, dressed like an aristocratic panhandler in a white tuxedo, gloves and top hat? His sign read, "Will Work for Grey Poupon."

Some think he is a bit eccentric, in a good way. Others wonder if he might be one taco short of a combination plate. Runge doesn't care.

His mission is to provide a little entertainment — and levity — and to make life in town interesting.

Eldorado (El-do-RAY-do), pop. 1,951, sits alone, a map dot more than 170 miles northwest of San Antonio.

The only town in Schleicher County doesn't have a tourist attraction, so Runge adopted a small, weedy patch of city land and made it a roadside park.

The perimeter of the "Hysterical District," as he named it, is decorated with colorful, hand-painted placards, a collection of pearls of wisdom and groaning puns.

In October, kids are invited to venture, if they dare, into the dark cobwebbed inner sanctum of Count Dracula's Pre-Owned Casket Company, Runge's Halloween haunted house.

He stages a spring goat race, the Elgoatarod, spoofing the sled dog Iditarod in Alaska.

About half the citizenry gathered on the courthouse lawn two weeks ago to celebrate another of Runge's quirky festivals, a storytelling-and-liars contest called the Running of the Bull.

Runge's office in this one-stoplight town is a former gas station. It doubles as headquarters of the Eldorado Olympic Bid Organizing Committee (EOBOC) which he says, straight-faced, will make a formal pitch to play host to the 2016 Summer Games.

Eldorado has plenty of propane to fuel the Olympic flame, but only one motel.

"Runge is wonderful," said Randy Mankin, owner and editor of the weekly newspaper The Eldorado Success.

Mankin saw him for the first time during the town's centennial celebration in 1996. Runge was walking on stilts, dressed as Elvis.

The town's drum major has done almost as much to publicize Eldorado as Warren Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), the largest polygamist sect in America.

About 18 months ago, a group of his followers left the FLDS stronghold along the Utah-Arizona border and resettled on a 1,600-acre ranch four miles outside of town, and began building a small community.

Some say there are as many as 200 FLDS members living on the ranch.

Mankin coined the slogan, "Eldorado, Polygamy Capital of Texas" and printed polygamy marriage licenses, which include lines for the name of one husband and up to 10 wives.

Runge renamed this year's goat race around the courthouse square the Texas Polygamy Games.

While some Eldoradoans balance concerns about their new neighbors with humor, others aren't amused. They resent their town being associated with the group in which men take child brides and whose leader — the second son of his late father's fourth wife — is a fugitive.

"It's not exactly the kind of publicity we want to have," said Eldorado Chamber of Commerce President Leonard Wideman, a local minister. "But it is what it is. We are the polygamy capital of Texas."

About 10,000 fundamentalist Mormons live in the twin border cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. The sect broke away from the Mormon Church in the 1890s after the church renounced plural marriage as a condition for Utah statehood.

The FLDS believes men have a religious duty to take at least three wives. Girls born into the group know no life other than polygamy.

To reduce the surplus male population, Jeffs has excommunicated hundreds of teenage boys, expelling them from their homes, during the past 4 1/2 years, according to The Associated Press.

The FLDS compound outside Eldorado became big news in March 2004 when The Success printed a front-page story under the headline, "Corporate Retreat or Prophet's Refuge?"

"We're honest West Texans here," said Wideman, pastor of Eldorado's First Presbyterian Church. "They came in lying. That's not the way to start up a relationship."

Townspeople wait and wonder what the future holds. In addition to the huge limestone church, with an estimated 60,000 square feet of interior space, FLDS members have built a dozen dormitory-style buildings, a meeting hall and other structures.

If more sect members migrate to Texas, the colony could one day rival the population of Eldorado. What would be the impact of a potential block vote in local elections?

Jeffs' arrest warrant raises fears of a showdown between law enforcement and the 49-year-old religious leader, reminiscent of the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff at Waco.

In June, Jeffs was indicted by an Arizona grand jury on two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to conduct sex with a minor. Arizona and Utah are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

Runge said most folks are taking a live-and-let-live attitude.

Always the optimist, Runge hopes that someday the outsiders will pack up and leave.

"We would have our Olympic Village already built."