This isn’t the first time that white supremacist Craig Cobb has tried to buy out a small town for his own uses. He attempted and ultimately failed to create a whites-only community in Leith, N.D.
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Now, however, according to the Grand Forks Herald, Cobb has his eyes set on another small town in North Dakota: Antler, where the population is in the 20s.
According to the report, last month Cobb said that he bought some $10,000 worth of property in the town from one Jim Lozensky, including an old bank and two residential lots. Cobb had dreams of turning the bank into a church for his “Creativity Movement,” a religion that teaches that white people are superior, the Herald notes. The lots would be for church members to start building a community together.
Cobb had also hoped he’d be able to name the town after one of his heroes, a man he admires: 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Antler’s few residents, however, aren’t enthralled by the idea. “Some of the citizens aren’t happy with the situation,” Bottineau County Sheriff Steve Watson told the newspaper.
“We don’t want the guy in town,” Mayor Bruce Hanson said of Cobb. “I mean, who does?”
Luckily, Cobb probably won’t be a problem in the foreseeable future because the city countered his offer to the man selling the property. Lozensky “took a down payment from Cobb on the property, and the city made an offer also,” Hanson explained. Lozensky ultimately sold more than 20 of his properties to the city for about $35,000.
Cobb, for his part, is complaining that he didn’t receive a deed. He wants to be reimbursed but not refunded. “We want our church,” he told the Herald. Cobb also accused Lozensky of backing out of the deal because of pressure from residents.
The mayor refuted that claim but said that “people were kind of upset.”
Cobb claims that he’s “not trying to rule over other people at all,” but apparently intends to bring in enough people from his church to outvote the current town residents.
Plus, this isn’t the same as Cobb’s plan for an all-white community, apparently. When asked if he would welcome black people, he told the Herald, “‘Welcome’ is a strong word. We understand that they have a legal right.”
Hanson said it’s better just to ignore Cobb, stating that for him, it was all about media attention. “That’s the bottom line with Craig Cobb,” the mayor said. “If I was you, I’d just ignore the guy.”
Read more at the Grand Forks Herald.
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