Former neo-Nazi site to be sold

The road is paved now where a gravel strip once headed north through a forested grove edged by farm fields.

The sawed-off remains of support posts are all that is left of a guard tower that was ribboned with Nazi banners and placards, and the driveway leading to what was once Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler’s neo-Nazi compound is covered in grass.

The compound was destroyed almost 20 years ago after a lawsuit filed against the Aryan Nations bankrupted Butler and his group.

Although its role as an integral piece of North Idaho history appeared to have sunset almost two decades ago, the 20-acre parcel along Rimrock Road has another story to tell.

The wooded land north of Hayden will soon be sold by its owner, the North Idaho College Foundation. The foundation acquired the property in 2002 as a donation from Idaho Falls philanthropist Greg Carr, and the money from the sale will be used for an endowment in Carr’s name that will fund human rights education at NIC.

The plans were revealed this week after months of groundwork that gathered support from stakeholders including school districts and area human rights groups.

“What an appropriate use of resources,” Steve Cook, superintendent of Coeur d’Alene schools wrote in a letter endorsing the plan to use money from the sale of the property for human rights education. “I can think of no better manner to honor that courage and legacy than to teach our children a better way.”

Cook was among a dozen entities including local universities and colleges, school districts and human rights groups to endorse the plan.

The project was a long time coming, said Tony Stewart, one of the founders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, and a friend of Carr.

“The land needed time to rest after all the violence that had taken place there,” Stewart said.

It’s been 18 years since the Aryans left the property after losing a $6.3 million civil suit. The suit began with an incident on July 1, 1998, when Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, were assaulted and terrorized by Aryans who shot at them and forced their car into a ditch.

Standing in front of the gate of the former compound on Rimrock Road, Norm Gissel, the task force’s Hayden attorney who instigated the civil suit against the neo-Nazis, said the Keenans’ small car drove up the grade on the gravel road in front of the compound when its engine backfired. Two Aryans who were drinking on guard duty, Gissel said, radioed that they were being shot.

A pickup truck soon raced down the driveway from the main compound, snatched up the guards and began chasing the Keenans’ small car, Gissel said. One of the Aryans stood on the bed of the pickup intermittently firing at the Keenans with an SKS assault rifle. Bullets zinged through the car’s interior striking the console, the dashboard.

‘It’s amazing they weren’t hit,” Gissel said.

After being chased 2 miles, running a stop sign and skidding around a sharp curve, a bullet struck a tire on the Keenans’ car and it careened off the road.

The Aryans threatened to kill the Keenans if they reported the incident to authorities. One of the Aryans broke Victoria Keenan’s ribs with a rifle butt as she sat in her disabled vehicle. A neighbor who had heard gunshots emerged from an adjacent driveway carrying a gun, and along with an approaching motorist, chased off the Aryans.

A few days later the task force received a call from a still-shaken Keenan, said Stewart. He had not heard of the incident until then.

“That was the most important call the task force ever received,” Stewart said.

Gissel became the Keenans’ personal attorney and he enrolled the Southern Poverty Law Center to join the fight against Butler and his group. On Sept. 7, 2000, a 12-member jury reached their verdict.

“Because of that incident, and Norm Gissel, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the task force, they were successful in bringing the civil suit that bankrupted the Aryan Nations,” Stewart said.

After the successful lawsuit, Butler and his followers were trespassed from the land and the compound was burned as part of a joint training exercise by local and regional fire departments. The land was then purchased for $250,000 by Carr, a humanitarian who had ties to the Kootenai County task force. The ground that had once been the headquarters of a group connected to 100 felonies and more than a half-dozen murders, Gissel said, would be set aside as a site of peace.

Since then the land has sat idle.

In November, Stewart’s idea to sell the land so its value could further human rights in North Idaho was pitched to Carr, who jumped on board.

“I love this idea,” Carr replied in an email. “Let’s sell the land and get a faculty visiting chair!”

The endowment, Stewart said, will be named for Carr, who gifted the land to NIC in recognition of the college’s years of commitment to human rights and social justice.

“I respect all of you, the good citizens of Kootenai County, and my friend Tony Stewart, for advancing the fundamental truth that all humans are one, that all humans deserve dignity,” Carr wrote in a January letter to NIC officials.

In a letter to the college, Stewart, the task force’s board secretary, said proceeds from the sale will result in netting a greater influence for human rights in the region.

“The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations board can think of no better way to reverse almost 30 years of messages and acts of hate by Aryan Nations in our region than with using the funds from the sale of the property to establish a permanent endowment for the study of human rights and our democracy based on the eternal principle that all human beings are born free and equal,” Stewart wrote.

Stewart and Gissel, both in their 70s, have been working, each in their own capacities, and often alongside one another to cement the principle not just in Kootenai County, but internationally.

Creation of the NIC Gregory C. Carr Visiting Faculty Chair will ensure the message of human rights will continue.

“This is one of the great morality stories of the Inland Northwest,” Gissel said.