Neo-Nazi Compound to Be Converted to Park

Reuters/January 24, 2002

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho -- The northern Idaho compound once used as a headquarters for the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations group has been given to a local college, which plans to turn it into a peace park, officials said today.

Gregory Carr, a businessman and millionaire whose Carr Foundation bought the property outside the town of Hayden Lake, gave it to Northern Idaho College. Mr. Carr said he was also financing three other initiatives to promote human rights in the state.

``The dollar value of these human rights gifts is a drop in the bucket compared to the value of time, vision, knowledge, and passion contributed daily to the cause of human dignity by community leaders I have met in northern Idaho,'' Mr. Carr said in a statement.

The 20-acre compound was the headquarters of Aryan Nations and its leader, Richard Butler.

Mr. Butler was ordered by a jury verdict in September 2000 to pay a $6.3 million civil judgment to two victims of a 1998 attack. Victoria Keenan and her son Jason were chased, beaten and then shot at by Aryan Nations guards.

The Keenans were awarded the property in a bankruptcy sale, and the Carr Foundation - established by Mr. Carr, the former chairman of the Prodigy Internet service - bought it for $250,000.