Hayden Lake: Where the Aryan Nations Lost

From nineteen seventy-four to two thousand one, a twenty-acre compound just north of Hayden Lake served as the national headquarters of the Aryan Nations, one of the most notorious white supremacist organizations in American history. Its founder, Richard Butler, was an aerospace engineer from Southern California who chose this corner of north Idaho because of its extreme racial homogeneity, and who held annual rallies that drew neo-Nazis and skinheads from across the country.

The compound's end came through a lawsuit. In nineteen ninety-eight, Aryan Nations security guards attacked a Spokane-area Native American woman and her son near the compound gate. The Southern Poverty Law Center took the case on behalf of the family and won a six million three hundred thousand dollar civil judgment against Butler and his organization. The verdict bankrupted the Aryan Nations. They lost the compound in two thousand one, and it was subsequently demolished and converted into a peace park.

Local human rights activists had worked for years to counter the group's presence. Their organizing, combined with the lawsuit, is now cited as a model for how communities confront organized hate.