The words "welcome to Leith" are etched on two wooden boards, nailed to a pair of poles stuck in the grassy North Dakota prairie. With wildflowers immediately to the front, a dirt road yards away and a few stray buildings and trees in the distance, the sign seems appropriately simple for the tiny town.
Yet in the last few weeks, Leith has become anything but.
Paul Craig Cobb wants to transform the tiny town 70 miles southwest of Bismarck into a community that mirrors his white supremacist views. He did so quietly at first, asking residents whether their land was for sale. But recent reports from The New York Times and the Southern Poverty Law Center exposed his mission and turned it into a national story.
In an interview with The New York Times, Cobb said he hoped his plans in Leith would "excite" white people and "give them confidence because we're being deracinated in our own country."