Culture » August 15, 2011
Hate in the Last Best Place
Nazis, ‘patriots’ and the Moral Majority take refuge in Montana.
BY Larry Keller
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Montana has the highest concentration of hate groups in the nation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. If Montana is the center of the hate group belt, then the Flathead Valley is its buckle. This long sliver of scenic land near Glacier National Park, in the state’s northwest corner, is where {Chuck Baldwin, once a preacher at the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.}, along with vociferous neo-Nazis, white nationalists and antigovernment zealots, has settled.
One Flathead resident is Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and founder of Oath Keepers, a national conspiracy-minded organization composed of veterans, active-duty military and law enforcement officers. Last summer, in Bozeman, Mt., Oath Keepers hosted the “world premiere” of the documentary Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America.
Another resident of the valley is antigovernment zealot Randy Weaver, a longtime hero of the “patriot” movement. After Weaver refused to appear in court on weapons charges in 1989, U.S. marshals visited his remote property in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, unannounced. Weaver’s dog, son and wife were killed in ensuing shootouts.
More recently, former militia leader David Burgert is alleged to have fired shots at sheriff’s deputies on June 12 on a logging road in a national forest. He has been a fugitive since. Burgert spent eight years in prison on weapons charges before being released in 2010. On June 18, a “patriot group” that Burgert belonged to called Flathead Liberty Bell held a ”Preparedness Expo” near Kalispell, Flathead Valley’s largest city, that offered workshops on various survival skills. Speakers at the expo included Chuck Baldwin and Stewart Rhodes.
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