Latest news with #Ozarks
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Whites-only community plotting expansion to another state as its efforts to build a ‘white nation' continue
A far-right ethnonationalist group that has set up a 'whites-only' community in a remote part of the Ozarks in northeastern Arkansas is reportedly exploring the possibility of expanding north into Missouri. Return to the Land (RTTL), which describes itself as a private membership association (PMA) for individuals with 'traditional views and European ancestry,' opened its first community in Arkansas in October 2023 and is now considering entering a second state, likely near Springfield, according to NBC's regional affiliate KSNT. The group is opposed to mass immigration, multiculturalism and 'forced integration' and reportedly does not welcome non-white, non-Christian or LGBT+ people, explaining that its members are seeking to 'separate ourselves from a failing modern society' and return to pastoral living. 'You want a white nation? Build a white town?' RTTL's co-founder Eric Orwoll asks in an X video promoting the initiative. 'It can be done. We're doing it.' RTTL's flagship community spans approximately 150 acres of land, is home to 40 inhabitants, and features its own cabins, roads, wells, a community center, and a schoolhouse. It was followed by a second site nearby that opened in January this year, with the group listing a further Ozarks site as upcoming and aspirations to move into the Appalachian mountains on its website. Speaking to Sky News journalist Tom Cheshire – who visited RTTL's first 'fortress for the white race' and found a world of fresh goat's milk, flute recitals, family kickball games and creek swimming – Orwoll expressed a nostalgia for the America of the 17th century encountered by the Virginia settlers. 'I would probably feel more comfortable there because I'm white and that's the way this country was when my ancestors came there,' he said, overlooking the Native Americans soon to be displaced by the colonists. 'Even if an individual has all the same values that I have, if they have an ethnic identity that other people share and care about, their children will also have that identity, and their children might not necessarily have all the same beliefs that they have.' On his ambitions for RTTL's expansion, he said: 'I would like to have more communities so that people in all parts of the U.S. have this as an option if they want. I would also like us to network and branch out internationally.' Part of that branching out includes online fundraising campaigns, one of which seeks donations to enable the group to pay 'cash rewards to parents of newborns as a means to incentivize population growth,' which was halfway towards its modest $10,000 goal at the time of writing. For a back-to-nature movement, RTTL is surprisingly active on social media, posting updates on the progress of its construction projects, wildlife photography, and even illustrations from children's books to promote its vision of rural idyll. Orwoll – who frames the debate surrounding his project as a 'First Amendment issue' and a 'freedom issue' about 'doing what we want on our own private land' – has invested tens of thousands of dollars into research on its legality. 'The attorneys we've consulted believe what we're doing is legal,' he told KSNT. 'Americans have the right to freely associate and form intentional communities on whatever basis they choose.' Orwoll believes its PMA status exempts it from legislation like the Civil Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act, which mandate equality and outlaw discrimination, although that is by no means an opinion shared by all experts. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, for one, said in a statement responding to RTTL's practices: 'Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society. These allegations raise all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns. My office is reviewing the matter.' Barry Jefferson, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: 'I just truly believe that we don't need to get back to the Jim Crow era. We've been through that before. I think no one should be discriminated against because of their skin colour. 'If you really look deep into the Civil Rights Act, it doesn't state that. I think they're misunderstanding what it states because there have been many organisations that tried to carve that out. That's not right.' The Anti-Defamation League has been even more blunt about RTTL, accusing it of trying to revive 'discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation.' Asked by Sky about the more overtly racist aspects of his organization, including the sharing of white supremacist slogans in its Telegram channel and his own thoughts on a 'second coming' of Adolf Hitler, Orwoll did not shy away, saying conventional opinion on the Nazi leader is 'one-sided' and informed by Second World War propaganda. 'I think all historical figures are complex, multi-dimensional,' he said. 'But when I say, 'you're gonna have to wait for that new Hitler to arise', I'm not saying you're going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust. 'I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that's how a lot of people see Hitler.' Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Whites-only community plotting expansion to another state as its efforts to build a ‘white nation' continue
A far-right ethnonationalist group that has set up a 'whites-only' community in a remote part of the Ozarks in northeastern Arkansas is reportedly exploring the possibility of expanding north into Missouri. Return to the Land (RTTL), which describes itself as a private membership association (PMA) for individuals with 'traditional views and European ancestry,' opened its first community in Arkansas in October 2023 and is now considering entering a second state, according to TMZ. The group is opposed to mass immigration, multiculturalism and 'forced integration' and reportedly does not welcome non-white, non-Christian or LGBT+ people, explaining that its members are seeking to 'separate ourselves from a failing modern society' and return to pastoral living. 'You want a white nation? Build a white town?' RTTL's co-founder Eric Orwoll asks in an X video promoting the initiative. 'It can be done. We're doing it.' RTTL's flagship community spans 150 acres of land, is home to approximately 40 inhabitants, and features its own cabins, roads, wells, a community center, and a schoolhouse. It was followed by a second site nearby that opened in January this year, with the group listing a further Ozarks site as upcoming and aspirations to move into the Appalachian mountains on its website. Speaking to Sky News journalist Tom Cheshire – who visited RTTL's first 'fortress for the white race' and found a world of fresh goat's milk, flute recitals, family kickball games and creek swimming – Orwoll expressed a nostalgia for the America of the 17th century encountered by the Virginia settlers. 'I would probably feel more comfortable there because I'm white and that's the way this country was when my ancestors came there,' he said, overlooking the Native Americans soon to be displaced by the colonists. 'Even if an individual has all the same values that I have, if they have an ethnic identity that other people share and care about, their children will also have that identity, and their children might not necessarily have all the same beliefs that they have.' On his ambitions for RTTL's expansion, he said: 'I would like to have more communities so that people in all parts of the U.S. have this as an option if they want. I would also like us to network and branch out internationally.' Part of that branching out includes online fundraising campaigns, one of which seeks donations to enable the group to pay 'cash rewards to parents of newborns as a means to incentivize population growth,' which was halfway towards its modest $10,000 goal at the time of writing. For a back-to-nature movement, RTTL is surprisingly active on social media, posting updates on the progress of its construction projects, wildlife photography, and even illustrations from children's books to promote its vision of rural idyll. Orwoll – who frames the debate surrounding his project as a 'First Amendment issue' and a 'freedom issue' about 'doing what we want on our own private land' – has invested tens of thousands of dollars into research on its legality. He believes its PMA status exempts it from legislation like the Civil Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act, which mandate equality and outlaw discrimination, although that is by no means an opinion shared by all experts. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, for one, said in a statement responding to RTTL's practices: 'Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society. These allegations raise all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns. My office is reviewing the matter.' Barry Jefferson, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: 'I just truly believe that we don't need to get back to the Jim Crow era. We've been through that before. I think no one should be discriminated against because of their skin colour. 'If you really look deep into the Civil Rights Act, it doesn't state that. I think they're misunderstanding what it states because there have been many organisations that tried to carve that out. That's not right.' The Anti-Defamation League has been even more blunt about RTTL, accusing it of trying to revive 'discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation.' Asked by Sky about the more overtly racist aspects of his organization, including the sharing of white supremacist slogans in its Telegram channel and his own thoughts on a 'second coming' of Adolf Hitler, Orwoll did not shy away, saying conventional opinion on the Nazi leader is 'one-sided' and informed by Second World War propaganda. 'I think all historical figures are complex, multi-dimensional,' he said. 'But when I say, 'you're gonna have to wait for that new Hitler to arise', I'm not saying you're going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust. 'I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that's how a lot of people see Hitler.'
Sky News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Inside the whites-only settlement in Arkansas: The group building a 'Fortress for the White Race'
by Tom Cheshire, Data and Forensics Correspondent "You want a white nation? Build a white town," Eric Orwoll says, in one video posted on social media. "It can be done. We're doing it." As the Arkansas sun beats down, dozens of men are hammering posts into the red-brown earth, building a fence to mark out the boundary. Over the last year and a half, high up in the hills and woods of the Ozarks, the group has been working hard: levelling the land, laying roads, building cabins. There are wells, a community centre and a school house, where the children do their lessons. The settlement sprawls over 160 acres and it's called Return to the Land. Its founders say it is an "intentional community based around shared ancestry". Writing on X, they are more straightforward: "We started a Whites only community." Around 40 people live here and hundreds more, from all around the world, have paid to be members. Warning: this report contains themes of racism and homophobia which some readers might find distressing Orwoll is the leader of Return to the Land, or RTTL. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, he says he is building a "fortress for the white race". And he has invited me in. RTTL is at the vanguard of an ethnonationalist movement that has been organising online – a network that aims to define countries by ethnicity but which links across borders. There are plenty of Nazi references on the group's public chat on Telegram. Peter Csere has posted the phrase 1488. 14 refers to the "14 words", a white supremacist slogan. And H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so 88 means HH, which means "Heil Hitler". He says that is "a funny comment, a throwback". Orwoll, in his videos, has talked about the coming of a second Hitler, saying he won't arrive unless people "do the work". I ask him about this. "Well, there I am, honestly, I'm addressing the sentiments of my audience," Orwell says. "Hitler is a very controversial historical figure. I think the mainstream view is one-sided. It's informed by World War II propaganda, but also the contrary position that Hitler did nothing wrong, that many people online say: that's also a one-sided view. "I think all historical figures are complex, multi-dimensional, but when I say, 'you're gonna have to wait for that new Hitler to arise', I'm not saying you're going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust. I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that's how a lot of people see Hitler." Orwoll insists what he is doing is entirely legal, because it is a private club and so exempt from equality legislation. Experts I spoke to doubt that. But the group has invested tens of thousands of dollars in legal research and believes that it has created a viable framework for many more communities to come - both in the US and worldwide. Three other settlements are under way right now, all part of what Orwoll sees as a "path to power". THE LAY OF THE LAND Friday evening, and around 20 members of RTTL are sitting outside on the benches in the communal area, eating burgers and drinking warm milk, fresh from the goats kept on the land. Many of the wider group did not want to be here with journalists; I'm told they include law enforcement officers and federal agents. The site is at the end of a dirt road, through a small river and then up into the hills. The nearest community is Ravenden, population 423. These are remote parts and RTTL chose them deliberately. This is an online movement that picked Arkansas for its real world action because of its low land prices and less demanding building regulations. It is scratchy living, extremely hot even in May, and full of ticks that burrow into people's skin. I'm interested to see what makes people give up their old lives for this. David and Caitlin are two of them. They were among the first to sign up more than a year ago, separately. They got married last month. "Somebody had posted a video of Eric," David tells me. "I saw videos of him building stuff, and thought, 'Oh man I got to come check this out'." Caitlin felt the same. "I figure there's nothing else like this in the country, it should at least exist. Do people really think we should never be able to choose our neighbours?" IS THIS EVEN LEGAL? This is a worldview that is shared by everyone I speak to, a reaction against what they see as left-wing politics pushed too far. But many of the opinions we hear have become relatively mainstream: that mass immigration is out of control, that Western societies are in danger of losing their fundamental character as a result. That evening, it starts raining hard, and lightning flashes across the valley. People shelter inside the portacabin schoolhouse, furnished with pianos and shelves lined with books, mainly Neoplatonist philosophy, Orwoll's particular passion. More goat's milk is served before everyone goes back to their own cabins. The next day, Orwoll organises the work party, a mixture of members and people who have come to check out the project. To join the group, you have to sign up to the Private Members Association, or PMA. Followers of "non-European religions", such as Islam, are banned. So are gay people. Anything that doesn't conform to what RTTL calls "traditional views" or "European ancestry". This is RTTL's logo, a rune, inspired by Norse mythology. It sits around the camp... ...and on their website. RTTL classes itself as a Private Membership Association (PMA). The PMA is what they believe keeps this all legal. Once people have been vetted, including with a video interview to confirm their ethnicity, they can buy shares in the Limited Liability Company or LLC. Those shares translate to acres of land that members can build on. The private members' club That means, RTTL believes, they can circumvent civil rights legislation, such as the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. Peter Csere is Orwoll's de facto number two, providing the details to fill out Orwoll's vision, including the legal framework. I ask whether this legal structure is designed as a way around the civil rights legislation - and Csere agrees. "But is this a loop hole?" he asks. "Or is this your way to maintain your right to free association, your right to various other rights that we have in the Constitution?" The civil rights challenge Barry Jefferson is the president of the Arkansas branch of the NAACP, America's oldest civil rights organisation. "I just truly believe that we don't need to get back to the Jim Crow era [of segregation]," he says. "We've been through that before. I think no one should be discriminated against because of the skin colour. "If you really look deep into Civil Rights Act, it doesn't state that. I think they're misunderstanding what it states because there have been many organisations that tried to carve that out. "That's not right." The Arkansas attorney general, Tim Griffin, gave me this statement: "This is the first I've heard of these allegations. Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society. These allegations raise all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns. "My office is reviewing the matter." Growing a white population A lot of this is reaction to identity politics - critical race theory, and movements like Black Lives Matter. And fundamentally, this is still identity politics - but white identity politics. This is a safe space, just for people of European ancestry. While the men labour, the women of RTTL are at work too, looking after the six children who are home schooled here, and preparing the food for tonight's community dinner. The theme is colonial. Niki is 32, Alison 29 and Caitlin is 31 - none of them want their surnames to be included here. This is vital to RTTL's mission, which aims "to promote strong families with common ancestry". And it has an online fundraiser, to give, quote "cash rewards to parents of newborns as a means to incentivize population growth". Just before we arrived they donated $1,000 to a family for having their sixth child. Like many far-right movements before them, RTTL's mission is to show that by excluding others, they can live purer, more natural lives: as they put it on their website, quote, "to cultivate wholesomeness, beauty, health, and hope". So I watch on as the group plays kickball, a cross between football and rounders, before they head down to the creek for a swim. FEARS OF A RETURN TO SEGREGATION As much as RTTL might like, they do not exist in a separate world. Pocahontas is the nearest proper town to the settlement, a half-hour drive away. In a quiet residential street lies the Eddie Mae Herron centre, a low wooden building that used to be a small school. Until 1964, it was called the "Pocahontas Colored School" and it's where Pat Johnson was educated in the 1950s. She lived her formative years under segregation, when African American children were not allowed to attend schools reserved for white students. 'We could not go to school together,' Johnson, tells me. 'We couldn't eat together. We couldn't do everyday things together. So the way I felt as I grew older, that each day, that you leave your home, you were under rejection.' When I explain what Return to the Land is doing, not so far away, she worries that segregation, or at least the attitudes that allowed it to flourish, are returning: 'When you hear things like that, it causes you to be fearful and you don't know who to trust.' 'I think it's the change of our presidency,' Johnson says. 'That's what I'm going to say, because I feel like that's where the change is. It's allowing people to have the right… to be open for hatred." And the data backs that up. There's been a rise in white supremacist incidents - demonstrations, flyering, meetups and recruitment drives - over the last four years, according to ACLED, which monitors violent conflict and protest around the world. A fortress for the white race It's my last day at RTTL and Orwoll is giving a flute recital. "It's a German flute. It was a very popular instrument in colonial America," he says. Orwoll studied music at university and he plays well. His is one act in a concert put on for our entertainment, the theme, once again, colonial. Peter Csere plays the piano. Caitlin sings a song about the Virginia settlers. Orwoll would prefer those times, would prefer the US to be an entirely white country. "I would probably feel more comfortable there because I'm white and that's the way this country was when my ancestors came there." That ignores the indigenous Native Americans who were there before the Europeans, or the slaves brought over in bondage from Africa. For all Orwoll's talk of different cultures or moralities, skin colour is what matters to him. I'm white. And when I ask whether I would be accepted into RTTL on that basis, Orwoll says I probably would. I point out that I don't know anything about "White American Culture", but that he'd rather have me than say, an American from a mixed heritage background. The problem, he says, is their children. "Even if an individual has all the same values that I have, if they have an ethnic identity that other people share and care about, their children will also have that identity and their children might not necessarily have all the same beliefs that they have." Orwoll believes in the far-right conspiracy theory of "white genocide", that white people are being destroyed, deliberately, by mass immigration and cultural indoctrination. RTTL is his response to this. "When I was a kid, I suppose I interpreted racism to be judging someone solely on the basis of their race. And is that a good or bad thing?" he says. "I think the basic moral consensus treats it as automatically a bad thing without a lot of reflection." Orwoll believes social media makes his movement "far more possible". He has a network, a legal framework, and a settlement. "I would like to have more communities so that people in all parts of the US have this as an option if they want. I would also like us to network and branch out internationally." If this is the first "fortress for the white race", Orwoll would like there to be many more to come. CREDITS Reporting team: Tom Cheshire, Maz Poynter and Chris Gordon Editor: Chris Howard Production: Maz Poynter, Sara Thompson, Kaitlin Tosh, Kate Schneider and Michael Drummond Graphics: Taylor Stuart, Annie Adam and Reece Denton Top Built with Shorthand
Fox News
11-07-2025
- Fox News
‘Devil in the Ozarks' investigators uncover how murderer escaped prison before manhunt
Arkansas lawmakers questioned officials with the state's Department of Corrections on Thursday about the escape of a dangerous inmate nicknamed the "Devil in the Ozarks" in late May. Grant Hardin, a 56-year-old murderer and rapist, was captured on June 6, approximately 1.5 miles north-northwest of the North Central Unit prison facility from which he escaped on May 25, the Izard County Sheriff's Office said. DOC Chairman Benny Magness told Arkansas State Sen. Fredrick Love during a Thursday hearing that while no officials actively had helped Hardin escape, a kitchen supervisor had allowed the inmate — who worked in the kitchen — to work on the back dock without supervision, which Magness noted is "against policy." "Then, the guy in the tower that let him through the gate…you don't open that gate for anybody or anything when there's not a ground person there to verify who it is who is wanting to exit the prison," Magness said, adding that those two employees were terminated for workplace violations. The DOC chairman also said the "stars had to line up" for Hardin to successfully escape. He fled the prison around 3 p.m. that Sunday through a sally port in the detention facility, wearing a makeshift ADC-style uniform, ADC communications director Rand Champion said previously, noting the uniform he had been wearing was not official. Magness also said Hardin apparently used a black "magic marker" to dye his clothing as part of his disguise. "I did actually see the little badge that he made out of a soup can top," Magness said. Hardin was serving an 80-year sentence for the 2017 murder of James Appleton and a previously unsolved 1997 rape case. Multiple federal, state and local agencies were involved in the search for Hardin in the weeks following his escape. "I'm incredibly appreciative to all of our dedicated law enforcement agencies that spent countless hours, both day and night, sacrificing their time, utilizing their resources and lending their invaluable expertise to this search," Arkansas Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace said after Hardin was captured on June 6. "To every one of our Department staff that assisted in this manhunt over the last 13 days, I give my heartfelt thank you for your immeasurable contributions to bring this search to a peaceful conclusion."
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Travel + Leisure
10-07-2025
- Travel + Leisure
5 Best Hotels in the Midwest of 2025
Midwestern getaways are having a moment, thanks to properties that pair regional character with luxurious amenities, in pretty stunning settings. Whether you crave historic charm on Lake Forest's tree-lined streets or an immersive wilderness adventure in the Ozarks, this year's reader-voted resorts in the region deliver unforgettable experiences and thoughtful service. Read on to discover the resorts that travelers to the Midwest are choosing as their temporary home away from home. Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe—to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Nearly 180,000 T+L readers completed the 2025 survey. A total of more than 657,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.). Hotels were classified as either resort hotel, city hotel, inn, or safari lodge based on their location and amenities, and they were specifically rated on the criteria below: Rooms/facilities Location Service Food Value For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses. Guests flocked to Big Cedar Lodge (No. 4) for an authentically rustic experience. But don't worry, there are plenty of upscale touches to ensure a remarkable stay. 'We have been going to Big Cedar for a dozen years. This place is everything you want from a beautiful visit to the Ozarks,' one reader shared. They praised the 'excellent activities' like boating on Table Rock Lake, walking the hills on beautiful paths, and enjoying the incredible spa. Readers also praised the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa (No. 5) for its family-friendly amenities. 'The Grand Geneva Resort provides the perfect balance for families seeking to have their children engaged and entertained, and the parents having their desires for excellent food, drinks, and service,' one traveler noted. 'Quality, elegance, cleanliness, and luxury are not compromised in the least. Everyone in the family left fulfilled! We plan on coming back every year!' Once again, Deer Path Inn held on to its title from 2024 as the number one spot in the Midwest for your next outdoorsy stay. Deer Path Inn: Lake Forest, Illinois Deep Path Inn's exterior. The Tudor-Revival landmark, first the home of Colonel William Sage Johnston, was turned into a hotel in 1929 and has been charming guests ever since. The inn blends English-style hospitality with modern comforts, all nestled in the heart of Lake Forest's historic district, just a quick train ride from downtown Chicago. There are 57 rooms, three dining venues, a legendary afternoon tea in the Garden Courtyard, and plush lounges where guests can kick back and relax all day. In addition to the setting, it's the people who make Deer Path stand out. 'Beautiful Inn with wonderful staff,' one reader shared. 'They make you feel at home from the moment you enter. Excellent dining options, too!' Just make sure that during your getaway, you stay awake long enough to enjoy the property's signature nightly milk and cookies. Deer Path Inn: Lake Forest, Illinois Reader score: 96.94 Grand Hotel: Mackinac Island, Michigan WBA Hall of Fame honoree. Reader score: 88.16 American Club Resort Hotel: Kohler, Wisconsin WBA Hall of Fame honoree. Reader score: 88.12 Big Cedar Lodge: Ridgedale, Missouri Reader score: 84.00 Grand Geneva Resort & Spa: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Reader score: 83.89
