A Data Center Offered $26 Million for Her Land. She Said No.

7:05Erich Schwartzel:Yeah. You're listening to baby bats talk. They live here, too, and they don't seem to bother. So they go on, go back up to the chimney and take their babies and go on. I don't know if they're the Indiana brown-nose or not. We probably got endangered species in our chimney. Just don't let any of the bureaucrats come and look around. No, they'll kill them. Yeah, they'll kill them.

7:29Ida Huddleston:Delsia is an encyclopedia of scripture, family lore, and life on the farm. After pointing out those stowaway bats, she started rattling through the Rolodex of invasive species that have come through her property.

7:44Erich Schwartzel:Turn loose a crane that they said was in danger, and it come here and eat up all the bullfrogs. And then that allowed these invasive tiger frogs to take over. Your English sparrow come in because somebody brought them and the starlings over here. And now they've brought in Peregrine falcons to eat those two up. And then they're really hard on the chipmunks this world. Songbirds like your cardinal and your nuthatch and all of your woodpeckers. I just soon hear him go, and I would, the big old falcon. But the Peregrine is real small. And you can't get a good shot at it. I tried when I still had my sight.

8:15Ida Huddleston:Thought you were about to say you have a new invasive species coming to Maysville.

8:19Erich Schwartzel:Oh, we do. Called the data center. Hyper data center. Hyper, they call it hyper. Hyper scale data center. It's the Antichrist.

8:29Ida Huddleston:Last year, when Delcia and Ida were approached about selling their property, at first they signed. That was the$26 million offer. But then Delcia learned the plan was to build an AI data center. And she told them to, quote, kick rocks and don't come back.

8:50Erich Schwartzel:If you'd gotten$26 million, it's like, yeah, I won it on the lottery. It wasn't about a data center. What would you do with the$26 million? All right, here's the answer the whole world wants to know the answer to. I would have turned around and bought every piece of property along the lease creek so that nothing could ever harm it. So the$26 million isn't going to mean anything to me because the data center would ruin anything that I would want. Does that make any sense to you?

9:17Ida Huddleston:The company let Delcia and Ida out of their contracts. I spoke to the local official who had been securing the acreage for the project, and he said they all knew that forcing someone to sell wasn't a way to win over the community. All told, the company has committed to paying$110 million in land deals if the data center is built. Sitting with Delsia and talking about all of this, I realized how much her opposition to the data center was rooted in her religious beliefs.

9:51Erich Schwartzel:I had an opinion on AI before this happened. I'm into Bible prophecy. AI is the beast system that the Revelation is talking about that makes it possible for the beast or Lucifer to track you and everything you're doing. And if you won't worship him, then he'll come and cut your head off. That's the way this is going to go down.

10:13Ida Huddleston:Delsia sees the proliferation of AI and the data centers that power it as something out of the book of Revelation, the biblical end of the world.

10:22Erich Schwartzel:I come up with the word anti-human, like anti-Christ. AI is anti-human. Of course, I've always been interested in prophecy and revelation. And anti-Christ, of course, is a word that's in my vocabulary a lot whenever you're dealing with prophecy. Well, now this is anti-human.

10:45Ida Huddleston:Was Delcia always this strong in her convictions?

10:50Erich Schwartzel:Her daddy was too.

10:52Ida Huddleston:Is that right?

10:53Erich Schwartzel:Mm-hmm.

10:53Ida Huddleston:How so?

10:55Erich Schwartzel:Well, he made up his mind and he believed the scriptures to his deathbed. My dad used to get mad at me. He didn't want me to read Revelation. He thought there was a curse that went with it. That might be why I can't see. I don't know. He was afraid of Revelation. and I just wanted to study it that much more. So I guess I have prepared my whole life for this moment.

11:18Ida Huddleston:Delsia has the same concerns as people fighting data centers in other communities. Environmental impacts, noise, and the worry that the economic benefits aren't worth the disruption. Maysville officials say they are aware of those concerns and they've passed regulations that they say will address them. The company has also pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars on local projects, including the repair of water treatment facilities that are falling apart. But the story of Delsia's resistance has spread, and it has won her fans across the country. One of them, Kenneth Cartier, has written several songs inspired by the story, though he had to admit he used AI to do so.

12:02Delsia Bare:We are Mason County We love this land We're not against the future We just want to stay in the plan

12:12Ida Huddleston:They get phone calls and letters of support.

12:16Erich Schwartzel:We've gotten several from California, some from Boston, Massachusetts, some from New York, some from Maine, some from Wisconsin, some from North Dakota, some from Wyoming. Kick rocks and don't come back. That is the message from a Kentucky farmer

12:31Delsia Bare:to an AI company. They denied that offer, saying they plan to stay, hold, and feed a nation. They wanted to keep their cows and not replace them with computers. I cannot get enough of these ladies. Yes, they're so great.

12:49Ida Huddleston:But closer to home, things are more complicated. Delcia and other opponents have filed lawsuits to stop the data center, and in doing so, have had to sue the neighbors who agreed to sell their land.

13:01Erich Schwartzel:When we filed the lawsuit, we had to file it against the only landowners on record that they put in the paperwork is our neighbors.

13:11Ida Huddleston:It became clear during my visit that there's a lot of tension in the air in Maysville. A lot of the fighting takes place in Facebook groups. Residents debate the issue and insult one another.

13:23Erich Schwartzel:A lot of the individuals on the other side keep referring to our land as just an old bunch of scrubby hillside. There's nothing going on there. It's vacant land. The worst one is that we were disgusting for suing our neighbors.

13:39Ida Huddleston:There are plenty of residents in Maysville who support the data center. They see it as a sign of progress, a new tax base, and an employer for a town that needs it.

13:53Ida Huddleston:For a long time, it was a mystery who was behind the Maysville data center. But residents recently discovered official paperwork that points toward Meta. A Meta spokesman said the company hasn't made a final decision about working in the area. When we were in Maysville, Delsia had her suspicions. She even joked about it when I asked. Now, is there any update on the question of who is building this?

14:22Erich Schwartzel:I'd like to see her get a hold of Zuckerberg if it's meta. Oh, I'd say it. She'd turn him over her knee.

14:29Ida Huddleston:No matter who is behind the data center, Delcia says that for her, it still comes down to a single question.

14:37Erich Schwartzel:What would Jesus do? And that really is what I'm asking. In this case, I just don't see the Lord Jesus Christ saying, hand me the$26 million for Dad's creation. Well, it may as well need something. we may need something, but we don't need this. After the break, a ghost story, Carl Jung, and a taxidermied beaver.

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16:14Ida Huddleston:After leaving Delsia and Ida in their matching recliners Max and I head down the street to a biker bar Called the Thirsty Beaver We're greeted by a big cartoon beaver Painted on the side of the building Prominent buck teeth drinking a draft beer Sign that says stop in for a damn good time D.A.M. Damn good time, of course, yeah, yeah. And they also have a sign that says speed limit 69. That is the first of many double entendres you'll see on the wall. Inside is another beaver, a taxidermied one that has seen better days. There are beer signs and chalk drawings all around. And on one wall, someone has also written a quote they've attributed to psychotherapist Carl Jung that feels oddly apropos.

17:05Ida Huddleston:Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

17:15Delsia Bare:It's the thirsty beaver. And if the name offends you, I'm going to offend you.

17:20Ida Huddleston:Danielle Ries bought the bar about a year and a half ago when she moved to the area. She's short, slight, and a force to be reckoned with.

17:29Delsia Bare:Everybody's welcome here. Everyone's welcome. Everyone's welcome. Our welcome wants. We have one hell of a time.

17:38Ida Huddleston:It's the middle of the day on a Monday. There are a couple of people drinking at the bar, but it's pretty dead in here. Danielle thinks the data center is the kind of boost that the area needs, not just for her bar, but for all of Maysville, especially when it comes to jobs. City planning documents estimate more than 1 ,500 construction jobs over several years, and the company says there will be 400 full-time jobs once it's built.

18:05Delsia Bare:My kids can't get a job. My kids are leaving. There's not a whole lot going on in this town. I don't even care if it's 100 people. That's 100 more people that need fuel, that need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their families are going to come here for, what, five to seven years, maybe. Wives come in. Children come in. They're going to the schools. It's employing teachers. It's filling an extra bus.

18:26Ida Huddleston:And her bar is the closest restaurant to the proposed data center site. It's right across the street.

18:58Ida Huddleston:Danielle knows not everyone here sees eye to eye with her about the data center. She tries to keep things civil in the bar, but the fights can get ugly. Danielle says just the other day, she had to kick somebody out who wouldn't stop railing against it. I mean, I still see people picking on those who have decided to sell.

19:23Delsia Bare:So it's a big divide with those that are defending their neighbors versus attacking.

19:29Ida Huddleston:I grew up in a town about this size, too, and I just keep thinking about how awkward, sad it must be to have, you know, neighbors who you see every day kind of having this come between them in such a way.

19:45Delsia Bare:It doesn't really come up here. It's kind of like you don't talk about certain things in the bar. And one fellow who was pretty adamant, I told him the other day, get out of here. We're not doing it because it's just like you don't talk about politics or religion.

19:59Ida Huddleston:I notice a man at the end of the bar watching us. He's sipping from a shot glass, and he asks what we're doing here. We're doing a story on the data center. What are you, pro data center? Neither. No, I'm a newspaper reporter, so...

20:16Erich Schwartzel:I'll just test him.

20:18Ida Huddleston:This is Cody Bess. His family has a long history in Maysville. The bar we're sitting in used to be his great-uncle's grocery store, And today, he has a contractor business. Cody goes right ahead and breaks Danielle's rules about what not to talk about in the bar.

20:56Erich Schwartzel:You've given up your family farm to go live somewhere else,

20:59Delsia Bare:and you might have a little money left, but was it worth it?

21:04Ida Huddleston:Then another guy sitting at the bar chimes in. His name is John. He tells us he likes to hear the birds sing, and he's worried that the sound of a data center might drown them out. John leans over to us with a video playing on his phone, supposedly of the noise pollution that can come from data centers.

21:25Erich Schwartzel:You gonna tell me you got noise like this coming out of your house 24 hours, 7 days a week? What is that?

21:33Delsia Bare:That's a data center. Huh? That's a data center. Oh my God, are you serious? Oh, it's just a small one. My freaking music, goddammit, 3 days a week is louder than this.

21:44Erich Schwartzel:Guaranteed. That's gonna be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Oh, for the love of God.

21:52Ida Huddleston:Danielle does see some of the downsides. She points out the window and across the street toward the land where the data center may go. There are some cows grazing in the field. She says she'll miss them. But as a newcomer to the town, she thinks a lot of the pushback is just resistance to any change at all, especially for those Maysville lifers.

22:15Delsia Bare:$26 million. I'd buy me a damn island. I'd put the cows on it and move the house that I wanted so bad. Everybody kissed my ass.

22:21Ida Huddleston:I think, I mean, I think if they were here, they would say it could have been$26 billion and it wouldn't have changed their mind.

22:29Delsia Bare:I mean, I might be eating shit here in six months. Dust, rocks flying, my water bill going up, my electricity, I don't know.

22:38Ida Huddleston:As we're leaving, we look out to see just how close Danielle's bar is to the data center site. Do you think there's a chance that one day they'll want this property?

22:52I mean, they didn't take that.

22:55Delsia Bare:They didn't take this. I think what they're going to try to do, I think they're going to try to push us out. I ain't going anywhere. I'm painting the ass. Ask them all. I'm here for a reason. Where are they going to go if they don't have any?

23:09Ida Huddleston:Danielle, you sound quite a bit like the farmers who don't want to leave their land.

23:14Delsia Bare:Well, they didn't have to.

23:21Ida Huddleston:Danielle and Delsia have found themselves on opposite sides of this issue. But they do have this in common. Neither plans to go anywhere. In Delsia's case, that would mean leaving her late husband Mike behind. He died in 2013, and his ashes are scattered on her property. There at the house, where I live.

23:47Erich Schwartzel:Now, I don't know how I would suck him back up and take him with me, so...

23:51Ida Huddleston:After her husband's death, Delsia was accused of abuse and neglect of their only son. She said it was a disagreement over corporal punishment, but she agreed to let him live with a relative to avoid a trial. That left her living on her own.

24:07Erich Schwartzel:Y 'all seen cattle yet? No. Woo! Sorry about that. Woo! Woo!

24:15Ida Huddleston:Delsia is calling the cows to breakfast. Tending to the farm has gotten tougher since she's gone blind, but she still knows where to find the cattle. Woo!

24:28Woo!

24:32Ida Huddleston:We open up the back of the Jeep and empty out eight enormous bags of feed. Woo! Eventually, seven or eight black cows come running down to the feed spot. Delcia stands nearby and leans on a walking stick.

24:49Erich Schwartzel:Humans are destructive and brutal. A cow might kick your head clean off, but she didn't know she kicked your head off. The humans know they do it and do it anyway.

24:59Ida Huddleston:You've been kicked by a cow?

25:00Erich Schwartzel:Oh yeah, lots of times.

25:04Ida Huddleston:On the way back, Delcia points to a patch of grass.

25:07Erich Schwartzel:This is the original home place.

25:10Ida Huddleston:How do you mean?

25:11Erich Schwartzel:The basement to the house is over behind him cattle, where my great-grandfather lived. That was the original plot.

25:20Ida Huddleston:Today, all that remains of her great-grandfather's house are a few bricks left on the ground. The history of the land is hard to miss. Behind Delsia's house, there's a small collection of gravestones that date back hundreds of years.

25:48Ida Huddleston:When I ask more about the people buried there, Delcia's response, as is often the case, is a journey through the lore of the land and the metaphysical. Her late husband, she says, could see the other side.

26:04Erich Schwartzel:When he was in Vietnam, if he shot a man, he knew if the fellow went to heaven or hell. He saw what come to get you.

26:10Ida Huddleston:When her son told her years ago about meeting two young girls on the property, Delcia started to believe he had inherited the same ability.

26:19Erich Schwartzel:My little son, he was up and riding that bike the lane with us, looking for rabbits and squirrels. And he said, he kept shaking me. He said, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. I said, What? And he said, Those little girls up there want their mother. I'm going, oh son, there can't be little girls up here. And he said, no, those little girls want their mother. Well, I thought he was joking around, you know, or carrying on. And of course, I didn't believe him. I went and asked dad about it. And he said, well, he may have did. I said, what do you mean? He said, there's a cemetery there on that property. And he said, two little girls said their mother got influenza first and died.

26:53Erich Schwartzel:And said then the two little girls died and said they would have died wanting their mother. because she was already dead. So my son saw those two little girls wanting their mother while they were dying, I guess.

27:11Erich Schwartzel:So just a big old data center's gonna come in here and all of those stories, they're nothing.

27:18Ida Huddleston:It's clear Delsia sees herself as the keeper of these stories. But even without her family's farm, the data center can still come to Maysville because enough of her neighbors have agreed to sell their land. And despite all of her fighting, Delsia may wind up living next door to it.

27:38Erich Schwartzel:Well, it'll be less than 50 feet from your house. Well, it'll just have to be 50 feet from my house. I don't give a flip. I'm not leaving Grandma and Grandpa's land.

27:55Ida Huddleston:That's all for today, Wednesday, September 9th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon.

28:15Ida Huddleston:Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.