Our Town Chapter 1: Sometimes You Find Silver

Summary

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Big Take: "Our Town - Chapter 1: Sometimes You Find Silver"

Date: August 7, 2026
Host/Production: Bloomberg and iHeartPodcasts
Narrator: Meriben Knight
Co-reporter: Susan Burfield

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Episode Overview

This first chapter of the “Our Town” series dives deep into the surprising transformation of Gainsborough, Tennessee—a small Appalachian town—after a mysterious outside real estate venture, Ridgerunner USA, begins to buy up large swathes of land. The story unfolds from the discovery by a local metal detector enthusiast and follows the town’s response to the sudden presence of a development group linked to Christian nationalism, raising urgent questions about belonging, identity, and the threat of ideological colonization. At its core, the episode explores how a tight-knit rural community contends with powerful outsiders intending to reshape it, and the homegrown resistance that rises in response.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Discovery

• Brian Allen's Curiosity (01:45–03:57):
  • Local hobbyist Brian Allen, intrigued by a prime piece of river-adjacent land, notices it’s sold to an outsider rather than a local—an anomaly in a place where “most time, you know, he would sell it to Jim Bob over the holler so it stays in the family” (03:28 – Brian Allen).
• Uncovering Ridgerunner USA (04:12–05:49):
  • Brian’s research leads him to Ridgerunner USA, a vague, pioneer-themed real estate venture linked to a larger, rhetorically bold company, New Founding.
  • Quote: “Pioneers, frontier—all the words for oppression and conquering… Like it gave me that feel like this was their manifest destiny.” (05:49 – Brian Allen)

2. A Town in Transition

• Meeting the Outsiders (07:41–12:21):
  • Cassie Kessler, local restaurant owner, describes her interactions with a newcomer real estate agent and the eventual purchase of a central building by the agent’s son, Josh Abattoy.
  • Initial friendliness gives way to guardedness; Cassie recalls, “We’re not gonna let anybody in there until it’s done. From right then it was like closed off” (12:02 – Cassie Kessler).

3. National Spotlight and Community Alarm

• Media Investigation (15:40–19:29):

  • Mark Dudney, a local historian, learns that a major investigative report is about to reveal Ridgerunner’s ambitions, connecting the project to Christian nationalism and controversial podcasters.
  • The news leaves residents "flat-footed” (19:10 – Mark Dudney).
  • Quote: “I do remember getting hot. Yeah, the arrogance. The hubris is mind blowing.” (19:28 – Mark Dudney)

• Defining Christian Nationalism (19:38–20:47):

  • The show outlines the ideology: “Christian nationalists believe that America is a Christian nation and should be led by Christians for Christians and more specifically, Christian men” (19:59 – Meriben Knight).

4. Community Backlash and Resistance Rising

• Town Reactions (21:22–23:13):
  • The town responds with anger and unity at a town hall, rejecting the newcomers’ vision.
  • Quote: “This town is not for them.” (21:43 – Mark Dudney)
  • “Big and tree is not going.” (21:45 – Cassie Kessler)

5. Inside the Outsider Movement

• Podcasters as Ambassadors (26:00–28:02):
  • Podcast streams (Contramundum) reveal hosts voicing anti-democratic and anti-feminist beliefs from their new base in Gainsborough.
  • Quote: “I don't see any reason why things will continue to justify women going more and more to college… women's lib… that's only led to despair.” (27:26 – CJ Engel)
  • Their aim: recruit more like-minded families to the region.
  • Open call: “Come here. Go to ridgerunnersa.com, come move here to be with us.” (30:16 – Andrew Isker)

6. Reluctant Complicity and Betrayal

• Realization by Locals (30:31–31:16):
  • Cassie Kessler feels duped—her business was being used to entice others: “Do not use my hard work and my businesses and my staff and everything that they do to sell your bullshit.” (31:05 – Cassie Kessler)

7. A Town Engages: Dialogue, Debate, and Deflection

• Podcast Confrontations and Community Concerns (31:47–34:26):
  • Locals challenge podcaster CJ Engel on a local video show about their motives, property purchases, and exclusionary practices.
  • “That land will never be able to be back in the hands of young people from Jackson county…they'll never be able to get it because it’s going to be in y’all’s little Nazi party.” (32:54 – Unidentified local caller)
  • Engel attempts reassurance but gives little detail: “Our plan is to assimilate into the culture of the area and to participate in making Gainsborough a better place to live.” (34:11 – CJ Engel)

8. Grassroots Resistance Mobilizes

• Nancy Pruitt and the 'Gainsborough Resistance' (37:57–43:39):
  • Retired art teacher Nancy Pruitt spearheads a campaign of yard signs—“Hate has no home in Gainsborough”—igniting unity and defiance.
  • “If they got 50 people to move in here, yes, they could take over our little town.” (40:01 – Nancy Pruitt)
  • Nancy’s efforts culminate in a symbolic sit-in at the local Dairy Queen.

The Dairy Queen Sit-in (44:09–45:39)

• Both sides (locals & outsiders) converge, showcasing unity across political divisions within the community.
• Quote: “Both sides of the political spectrum being there was chill inducing. Like, it was like, all right, we got this.” (44:59 – Brian Allen)

9. Official Pushback

• Chamber of Commerce Denial and Legal Threat (47:43–49:51):
  • The town’s Chamber rejects Ridgerunner's membership on moral grounds, despite legal threats from Ridgerunner’s lawyers.
  • “Now you get to go tell the town that you canceled Christmas. Go ahead, as a bunch of Christians, tell this town that all of our Christmas festivities cannot be put on because your feelings are hurt.” (49:51 – Cassie Kessler)

10. Escalation: Massive Land Accumulation

• $2.5 million purchase and the Expanding Footprint (50:21–51:15):
  • Ridgerunner announces a stunning expansion—now controlling 1,200+ acres, more than the size of Gainsborough itself.
  • The town is left with growing anxiety over the scale and intent of the project.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On discovery:
  “Like, yeah, 90% of the time I'll go out there and find garbage, but sometimes you find silver.” (03:38 – Brian Allen)
• On the web of companies:
  “We are forging an alliance to revitalize American civilization...build the America you want to live in. And it's like, but it's already built…yeah, that don't sound good.” (05:08 – Brian Allen)
• On podcast ideology:
  “Women's lib… that's only led to despair. And I think that women are starting to recognize that...” (27:26 – CJ Engel)
  “It's so crazy to me that it’s freedom for them, but only people that seem like them.” (27:55 – Cassie Kessler)
• On buying land:
  “The whole point of it is to plant a flag and say, this small town is where our people are gathering.” (31:26 – Brian Allen)
• On the Chamber’s decision:
  “So now you get to go tell the town that you canceled Christmas… Get the fuck outta here.” (49:51 – Cassie Kessler)

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Essential Timestamps

• Discovery of land purchase: 01:40–03:57
• Brian investigates Ridgerunner/New Founding: 03:57–05:49
• Backstory on Ridgerunner’s ambitions: 05:49–06:02
• Outsider realtors arrive/Cassie’s perspective: 07:41–13:13
• Media exposes the plan: 15:40–19:29
• Town hall resistance: 21:22–23:13
• Podcasters reveal ideology: 26:00–28:02
• Local backlash and realization: 30:31–31:26
• Virtual confrontation with locals: 31:47–34:26
• Grassroots organizing/Nancy Pruitt: 37:57–43:39
• Dairy Queen sit-in: 44:09–45:39
• Chamber of Commerce standoff: 47:43–49:51
• Largest land sale announcement: 50:21–51:15

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Tone & Narrative Notes

The episode is investigative yet intimate, combining Bloomberg’s journalistic sharpness with dry Appalachian humor and heartfelt local testimony. There is wariness and suspicion but also fierce pride and unity among Gainsborough residents. The episode successfully blends the suspense of a whodunit with sociopolitical commentary, keeping the audience engaged and rooting for the locals.

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Summary Conclusion

Episode 1 of “Our Town” paints a vivid, nuanced picture of a rural community under cultural siege, peeling back the layers of motivation, ideology, and resistance. The actions of a curious local (Brian Allen), the vigilance of a historian (Mark Dudney), the tenacity of community pillars like Cassie Kessler and Nancy Pruitt, and the defensive maneuvers of the Chamber of Commerce together tell a larger story: small towns are far from passive, and the fight for their future may well be the frontline of America’s social and political evolution.

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Transcript

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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News Our

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

story starts with a guy and his metal detector.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

I got it as a Christmas present one year and I was young. 12, 13 or something like that. One of the cheap ones, but I just like the mystery of it. There's this open field, nothing around, but here's a silver coin like that was magical.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Brian Allen grew up metal detecting in his hometown of Gainsborough, Tennessee, a teensy town in the foothills of Appalachia. People call it the Switzerland of the Cumberlands. Lush rolling hills, sweeping vistas, and a lot of history.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

I found a lot of moonshine sights, old shotgun shell heads. You can tell modern ones because they have the plastic.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

During the Civil War, the Confederate army would post up by Gainsborough to seize the Union Army's supplies as they floated by on the Cumberland River.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Horse stuff.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

So for the right person, broken horseshoes. It's a treasure trove.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Axes just the Mystery of just putting something together. I'm a very quiet person. If I'm talking about something I'm passionate about, then I can go.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

There was one piece of land that backed right up to a curve in the river. Bryant had been eyeing it for years. 99 acres of farmland was over by the high school.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

That's the one that I really wanted to hit.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

A place that's about to produce his biggest discovery yet. This is the summer of 2024. Bryant goes digging through public records to get permission from the owner to metal detective, and he realizes it's been sold recently to a name he doesn't recognize. Now, Gainsborough is a town of a thousand people, many of whom are related. So it's a peculiar thing to find a name you've never heard of because

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

most time, you know, he would sell it to Jim Bob over the holler so it stays in the family.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

So that intrigued me because if someone local didn't buy the land, then who did?

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

I have a very inquisitive mind about things. I have far fetched ideas and some of them work out and some don't. I think that goes back to my metal detecting. Like, yeah, 90% of the time I'll go out there and find garbage, but sometimes you find silver.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

So he googles some of the details on the property record and sees that it was some real estate guy who bought the land. And that leads him to a company, one called Ridgerunner usa. He goes to the Ridge Runner website.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

The first thing you see when it pops up is Pioneers in Appalachia.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Pioneers in Appalachia. The website is spare with that single phrase over an image of an open field with a winding dirt road. And below, an invitation to learn more. Bryant clicks.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Bridge Runner is building pioneer communities in the old American heartland.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Ridgerunner appears to be some kind of real estate company.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

We see rising demand for new types of communities around a shared vision for local life in America. I'm like, hang on, that was when I was like, whoa, you got something.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Bryant searches more and finds that Ridgerunner seems to be affiliated with a larger company called New Founding. That website is packed with even grander pronouncements.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

We are forging an alliance to revitalize American civilization, bringing builders, creators and concerned citizens together. Build the America you want to live in. And it's like, but it's already built. I'm like, yeesh, yeah, that don't sound good.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

From what Bryant can discern, New Founding is involved in all sorts of things. Venture capital, media and real estate. That's Where Ridgerunner comes in. Both companies, Ridgerunner and New Founding seem ambitious and filled with big ideas.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Pioneers, frontier, all the words for oppression and conquering. We're going to convert these heathens like it gave me that feel like this was their manifest destiny.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Ridge Runner, new founding, those 99 acres across from the high school. Brian is trying to figure out what's in front of him.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Like what am I missing?

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

What was happening in his quiet hometown. In the months following? Bryant, who is painfully shy, reveals his discovery to only one person, a co worker. But he keeps tracking Ridgerunner, the real estate company, and finds more land getting scooped up in and around Gainsborough. Bryant had stumbled into something. The beginning of an ambitious project to make Gainsborough a new type of town filled with like minded people. This tiny town would soon realize it was part of a much larger experiment backed by people with powerful connections and plenty of money to build the America they want to live in, starting with Gainsborough. From Bloomberg News, I'm Meriben Knight reporting along with Susan Burfield. And you're listening to our town. This is chapter one. Sometimes you find silver. A few months before Brian Allen, the metal detecting enthusiast, started snooping around about those 99 acres, a new face started turning up at the stolen Coin restaurant. The Coin, as it's called, is a local institution.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Hi, how are you?

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It's owned by Cassie Kessler and her husband, who's the chef. Brian Allen goes there often, as do many day tripping tourists. It's right on the town square. The town square, which is one square block with an old courthouse in the middle, is Gainsborough's social hub. It's where people come to gossip, to shop, to pick up a prescription or eat a plate of biscuits and chocolate gravy. It's a southern thing, an Appalachian special. It was in the midst of all this when Cassie saw that new face at her restaurant. A real estate guy.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I had become pretty good acquaintance for he knew my first name basis would come in. Anytime he would come in, I would sit and talk to him.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Cassie is energetic, a fast, urgent talker, flitting from table to table in the coins cozy dining room.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Hi, Dave baby, how are you?

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Good, good.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I just like, like to table touch, like to talk to people. It's a small town, like I know everybody in that restaurant. Show you the pictures I know. I can't wait to see.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

And this new face, the real estate guy, he was a great customer, very, very personable and seemingly interested in investing in Gainsborough. And Cassie had a hot tip.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

My Lawyer at the time was looking to sell his spot.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The building was right around the corner from the restaurant, right off the town square. A prime location and rare find.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

And I had mentioned it because some of the other buildings in town, it's very hard for them to come. They're passed down through family.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Cassie had learned this about Gainsborough, that it was tight knit. She'd moved there about five years earlier from Florida, and the town had given her a lot.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I could not have been to this point in my life without the support of this town, whether it's council members, community members, business members, employees. Like it has just been an effort from everybody.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Cassie is a recovering drug user, sober 13 years. So the idea of having this kind of welcome and support system to open a business, it meant everything to her.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I was such a bad person for such a long time. And it's really nice to like take that effort that I used to be into being an addict and put it into the good stuff in the community and like helping it just is like, I know it sounds cheesy and I say it does. It's better than being high. Like it really is. It makes you feel good, it makes you feel valuable. All the opposite feelings you get whenever you're an addict.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Cassie loved helping Gainsborough grow because like her, it too had struggled in years past, hollowed out by job losses and stagnant wages. Nearby factories had closed. The shirt factory, Oshkosh b'.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

Gosh.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Then came the opioid epidemic. But over the past decade, people like Cassie had started opening restaurants and stores that drew tourists. So when this real estate guy showed up in town and bought the building that Cassie tipped him off to, she was delighted he bought it, along with his son, who'd just moved from Texas to Gainsborough. He was becoming a regular too. His name was Josh Abattoy. Soon he'd started coming in with other men, men who also seemed new to the town. She wasn't sure if they were colleagues or friends.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

As many times as they came into my restaurant or did anything, they never would talk to me.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

But that didn't deter Cassie from chatting Josh Abattoy up after I'd found out

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

that they had bought it. Josh, his father and another gentleman were sitting at the restaurant. And I can remember, I remember it was table 10 and I was sitting there talking to them about, you know, what are you guys doing? And, oh, it's an appraisal business. Just very like not putting a direct stamp on it. Like we're still trying to figure out it's going to be a couple different things. And I was like, oh, I'm going to have to come down and check it out.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

All the Gainsborough business owners were close here in town.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Like all the businesses on the square, we like do so many things together. We just are each other's biggest cheerleaders, you know.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

But that was not the response she got from Josh Abatoi.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

And I can remember him looking up at me and saying, we're just gonna have to wait till it's done. We're not gonna let anybody in there until it's done. From right then it was like closed off. It went from open conversation to like, now I'm just not gonna talk about what this place is anymore. I should have been like, whoa, that's kind of weird.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Then a couple months after Abattoy purchased that building by the square, the town would find out why. Nothing was quite the same for Gainsborough after that. More after the break.

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[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

friend of mine texted me about 3 o'.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Clock.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It was a Friday in mid November when Mark Dudney, a preservation planner and historian for the area, received a message from his friend. It was about an upcoming news story.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Phil Williams was going to have a peace on Monday night.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Phil Williams is an investigative reporter with News Channel 5 in Nashville. Been on the air for decades and has a well known series called Confronting Hate.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

New data appear to reveal a disturbing trend. The rise of hate in Tennessee.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

And the next story in the series Mark learned was going to be about Gainsborough.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

I felt like my blood pressure ramped up. I don't have an alarmist personality. I'm a really flatline on an ekg.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Mark had grown up in Gainsborough, then left after high school but had recently moved back.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Well, this is sort of getting into personal stuff, but I got divorced last year.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

For Mark, like Cassie, Gainsborough was a place to recover, to breathe.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

My family has been here seven generations. I grew up going to a little church right down the road here. Very tight knit.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Mark's dad had also passed away that year. Dr. Dudney. He was Gainsborough's beloved local doctor delivered many of the town's babies. So Mark had a lot to process. Being home helped. So had turning off the news.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

I was listening to a lot of Allman Brothers, and so that was just a pleasure to be back here. That lasted about six weeks.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

More specifically, until November 18, 2024, the night the TV news story about Gainsborough aired.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

That Monday night, I watched it with my sister.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

Tonight, News Channel 5 investigate special report reveals to Christian nationalists who want to turn a small Middle Tennessee community into their base of operations. Phil, you found that longtime residents didn't even know this was happening. This has very much been developing under the radar.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

I was glued to the television.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Mark pulled a chair right up to the tv.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

In many ways, the views of some of these people are not so different from the white supremacists we've seen marching down Nashville streets in the past year, although they dress up their ideas with intellectual buzzwords and call it Christian. And they've announced that Gainsborough, the Jackson county seat, will be the focus of their efforts to resettle like minded people from around the country.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The goal, from what Mark understood, was to turn Gainsborough into their own type of Christian town. The report focused on two newcomers, a pair of podcasters who'd already moved to Gainsborough.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

They say they hate democracy, they're rooting for a Protestant dictator, and they think God made men to rule over women.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Williams described the two podcasters as ambassadors for the larger venture.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

The two Christian nationalists denounced the efforts of civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in general. They celebrate images of whites only diners in the 50s, and they mock historical.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

As Mark watched, he learned the real estate group running the whole venture had already bought 100 acres right in Gainsborough and another 500 acres somewhere in the Appalachian hills, all to build the community.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

We were all flat footed. We didn't have a clue.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The report, a mere 10 minutes, shook the tiny town. Mark, despite his usual flatline EKG demeanor, was feeling all sorts of feelings.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

I do remember getting hot. Yeah, the arrogance. The hubris is mind blowing.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

There was a phrase in the news report that hit Mark, especially Christian nationalist, with his penchant for constitutional history. He was familiar with the term Christian nationalist, though many of his fellow residents were not.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

To me, Christian nationalism is fundamentally un American. Really, this is just about white supremacy.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

One important note, the podcasters do not call themselves white supremacists. They've called their podcast the number one Christian nationalist podcast in the world. But one of them told us he doesn't describe himself that way. And the guy in charge of the larger venture says he's not a Christian nationalist. Christian nationalists believe that America is a Christian nation and should be led by Christians for Christians and more specifically, Christian men. Gainsborough, the Jackson county seat, may have seemed like a good fit. The county is overwhelmingly white. 96%. It's also Christian and conservative. 81% voted for Trump. So it might be easy to stereotype

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

what people commonly think about Jackson County. They think we're all backwards, hateful, racist and oh, he's from Jackson County. Like it carries something around here.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Brian Allen, the guy with the inquisitive mind and the metal detector, had also watched the report and felt an odd

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

combo of emotions in a weird way, like vindication.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

But he also felt terror.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

This can't be real. I guess a here we go moment. Like, you know, this isn't a Fly by Night LLC that will be shut down and they're here to I guess homestead to make a town. And I didn't know how the community would react.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The town was practically vibrating. Talking, texting, Googling. It was all the talk at church on Sunday. Days later, Phil Williams returned for a follow up story. A sort of town hall on the square. About 40 people came.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

When you hear them talking about coming here to build a town, what's your reaction?

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

This town is not for them.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Big and tree is not going.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

No, it's not going.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The vice chair of the local Republican Party spoke up. It scares me that they are very clear about taking over. Bryant stood in the back of the room, his mind racing.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

It was more like, wow, is this really happening?

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It was all making sense now. He thought back to the 99 acres across from the high school that he'd investigated months before. Back then he'd worried he was being a little paranoid. Now he realized he'd been onto something. That real estate company Ridgerunner, the one Brian had googled.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

We see rising demand for new types of communities around a shared vision for local life in America.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

They were the ones who'd purchased those 99 acres. That land was their start to building their community, to remaking Gainsborough.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Build the America you want to live in.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It was all a part of this plan. Inside the town hall, Bryant was relieved to hear his neighbors objections.

[Phil Williams (Investigative Reporter)]

What message would you have for these people?

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

We all want to be a part of a racial hate community.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

The bond that formed was almost magical.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

This was the Gainsborough he knew. Meanwhile, Mark Dudney, the historian, sat second row in the town hall, listening and Making all kinds of wild connections.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

It was so close to Halloween. I've been watching horror movies and I shot my mouth off and made some reference about Salem's Lot.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Salem's Lot, a novel turned film by Stephen King in which a man returns to his hometown only to discover that a strange businessman has also arrived, along with an ancient vampire to take over the town.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

And as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Barlow and Mr. Straker can load up the coffin and get out of Salem's Lot. You've got somebody coming who was trying to recruit and multiply. And it was not that far off as an analogy.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The town now believed it was part of a plan to build a far right community, that outside money was flowing in to make it, and that podcasters, far right Christians were already here and promoting it. Everything else was still a mystery. What exactly was Ridgerunner? Who were these guys? And how many were already in Gainsborough? There was one person at the town hall standing in the back near Bryant, who had some answers. Cassie Kessler, the restaurant owner. She'd recognized the two podcasters from the TV report. She knew them. They'd eaten at her restaurant. And what's more, the real estate guy, the one she'd helped find the building for, his son, Josh Abattoy, who'd moved from Texas. He was the leader. He was the CEO of Ridgerunner, the company behind this whole thing.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Like, I instantly shot back to the night of the election, the night of

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

the 2024 presidential election, just two weeks earlier. The last time Cassie had seen Josh Abattoy, he'd come in for lunch that day and again for dinner.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

We made sure a nice table was set up for them. You know, Abatoy's family was. They were all there with their whole family.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

She and Abatoy even made a friendly wager.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I was like, who do you think's gonna win? And it was just like, me just being, like, funny. Like, I can remember him leaning back like this and going, it's gonna be Trump. He's gonna take it. And I was like, I'm gonna buy you a beer. If he. If he wins, he's like, okay, I'm gonna hold you up to that. And we just, you know, chuckled.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

While Cassie headed home from the restaurant for an early bedtime, a very different night was ahead for Josh Abattoy, who left the coin to go be on a podcast.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Hello, and welcome to Contramundum. It is election night. I'm Andrew Isker. This over here is CJ Engel.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The hosts were the two podcasters the ones who'd already moved to town to help Josh Abatoy with the Ridgerunner development. To many people in town, they'd become the voice of the venture.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Awesome. All right, C.J. what are your thoughts?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

I am ready to doom. Scroan.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Doom. Scroll Twitter all night long.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Cassie hadn't seen this live stream when it aired. But now, after the TV news story, she watched some. It was nearly nine hours, so I

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

was just very angry and I knew that I was going to see them at some point.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Many others in town now also watched, eager to learn what they could about these newcomers. The two podcasters wore matching blue suits and ties, thanks to their wives.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Yeah, they bullied us into matching.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

They already seem giddy.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

You didn't need the pocket square.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

I have the pocket square.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

They're Trump supporters. Andrew Isker was new to Tennessee. He said he fled Minnesota for its wokeness.

[Wise Currency Service Announcer]

We will win.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

His co host, CJ Engel left California for the same reason.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

I'm pleased as punch.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Did we say that in Tennessee?

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Sure, we do now.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

All right, well.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

And now here they were, live streaming their podcasts from Gainsborough from the same building Cassie had tipped Josh Abattoy and his father off to. It was now Ridgerunners headquarters. The name of the podcast, Contra Mundum is Latin for against the world.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

I don't see any reason why things will continue to justify women going more and more to college. Like women's lib, you know, liberation or emancipation. And the career women. That's only led to despair. And I think that women are starting to recognize that will probably be easier

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

to get rid of democracy as a whole before getting rid of the 19th Amendment.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

It's difficult.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The 19th Amendment, the women's right to vote.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

And women are basically going to revert back to their natural station, like. Like a natural order. Correction.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

It's so crazy to me that it's freedom for them, but only people that like seem like them.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

All their talk about women's natural order. Well, Cassie was not a mother. She had tried, really tried, but she wasn't a mother. She was a wife, an entrepreneur, a voter. She served her community in all sorts of ways.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

If you really did your research, almost every business on this square is run by a woman.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

A stroll around the town square reveals how many women anchor the Gainsborough economy.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Myself, Ms. Sally's nostalgic gib Flow, the

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

pharmacy, the realtor next door, Faye's Cafe, the gift shop down the street.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

And then we have a woman judge and we have a woman attorney, and we have women Alderman, we're all women and we're all just keeping our heads down and we're trying to grow this

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

town, starting with our 8 o' clock ad.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Read here.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

The 8 o' clock hour is sponsored by Pax mail. Fellas, get off of gay email. Join Paxmail CC instead. Keep the money with the brothers. We've got the. The Muslims in Dearborn, they.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

They voted for Trump. This is amazing.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Thank you for your service, but you're going back.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Sorry. You can be deported last.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

You know what's hilarious? By hour four, it was clear that Trump was going to wing project.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

No, no, guys, guys.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

That was Josh Abatoy, the CEO of Ridgerunner, chiming in.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

This is our democracy.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Our democracy. It's ours. This is our democracy. We are the captain now.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

Right.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

By hour eight, it was confirmed Kamala Harris had lost to Donald Trump.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

He is the atlas holding up the world of the patriarchy right now. Yes.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

And that's when I've got the glass

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

ceiling 10 inches thick.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The glass ceiling jokes began.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

The glass ceiling just got 10ft, feet taller.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Heritage America one.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Oh, he's a purge.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

It's the only kind America there is, man.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Honestly though, like, the podcasters finally signed off by talking about their new hometown.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

This is really cool, though, to be able to do this from Gainsborough, Tennessee. We've been building up for this moment for months and we're here. We have so much planned. We have great families here, we have great guys here. It's just really great to connect with a small town of trump loving Americans.

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Seven thousand of you watching. Come here. Go to ridgerunnersa.com come move here to be with us.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

This is just the beginning of a lot of things. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Yeah, amazing. Crazy.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

After listening to this, Cassie felt duped.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Then it's like one of those, like, retrospects in a movie where, like, you find out something and then you go back and all the flashbacks of like, oh, my gosh, that makes sense.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Conversations Cassie witnessed in her restaurant months earlier now had an entirely different meaning.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

They're trying to sell these plots. So they bring people in, give them a tour of the town, and then they would bring them to lunch. And because they get great service, they say, look, we're welcome here. Look, when you move here, you can get this. Look how much they like us. They're all like us here.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Like in that moment, you're just thinking that some people having a conversation, oh,

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

they like my restaurant. Like, do not use my hard work and my businesses and my staff and everything that they do to sell your bullshit.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

As news of the real estate venture continued to spread through the town, so did anxiety about who might come here. After all, Josh Abattoy had been pretty explicit.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

The whole point of it is to plant a flag and say, this small town is where our people are gathering.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

After the TV news story dropped, Abatoy laid low.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I remember not even really seeing them around town.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

But one of the podcasters, C.J. engel, did make an appearance, a virtual one.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

All right, thanks for calling.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

I'm gonna go ahead and give you to CJ.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

Okay.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

On a YouTube show called Truth with Proof, hosted by a local preacher, Engel's new neighbors were eager to talk to him.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

So are you really an American? Are you a spy from Russia? What's your deal, buddy?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Yeah, I'm. I'm American, and I love this country. And I'm here because I think it represents the American ethos much better than in California did.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

And I got a question. Why are you in Jackson County?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

I'm buying in Jackson county because I like the region and seems like, you know, a good place to raise families. And this is where my. My friends decided to go.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

Who's your friends?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Well, Josh Abatoy and Andrew and people like that. And we have friends here that have grown up here as well.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

How'd you make them on the Internet?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

That's where you meet people these days.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

Yeah.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Yeah. Well, look, well, I appreciate your cynicism, and I. And I don't take it offensively. So thank you for calling in, and I hope to, you know, you know, earn a, you know, better reputation over the next couple years.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

And here's another problem, buddy.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

Sure.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

With y' all coming in, buying land from Jackson county people, you're taking that land away. Then you're marketing that land to people from Minnesota, California, Wyoming, Colorado, wherever it is you're trying to get them from. That land will never be able to be back in the hands of young people from Jackson county who want to buy a house. 2 acres, 5 acres, 15 acres, whatever. They'll never be able to get it because it's going to be in Yalls little Nazi party. I don't understand how you think that's good for our people. You're not welcome.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Not everyone who called or texted was opposed to Ridge Runner. Someone says, hey, cj, you're handling all the calls.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Well, those who watch the podcast in full will see your fruits and your intentions.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

But by and large, people were suspicious and very confused.

[Unidentified Speaker (possibly a guest or minor character)]

Okay, I have a question about you all stating that you were going to plant a flag and start a town. I don't understand that exactly because we are currently a town, so I wasn't really for sure what that meant.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

That's what everyone wanted to know. What did it mean when they said they were building a town and would plant a flag?

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

It's probably analogous, you know, plan like, I don't think I don't have any plans to start a town.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

I mean, instead, he brushes it off as just talk.

[CJ Engel (Podcaster)]

But I don't have any plans. And I say this very, very seriously. Our plan is to assimilate into the culture of the area and to participate in making Gainsborough a better place to live.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Engel was as civil as can be, even said he'd gotten plenty of sympathetic messages in the weeks after. But those who wanted more details were frustrated. His answers on the show didn't reveal much. Then he and the others seemed to disappear from public life in Gainsborough, so residents decided they needed to take matters into their own hands. That's after the break.

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[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Gainsborough Resistance, as it's come to be known, started with 70 year old retired art teacher Nancy Pruitt.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

My family goes back to, you know, when Gainsborough was formed.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy knows the town gossip, even has a police scanner on her kitchen counter, always chattering in the background.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Nancy actually was the one who came and told me about it.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

You know, Nancy can tell you Nancy

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

was talking about that at one point.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

If she wants you to know something, she will make sure you know it.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy taught in the local public schools for many years. Since retiring, she's been living her best life, traveling the world, volunteering.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

This town is very special. To think that people wanted to come in and change everything. I was very disillusioned. It was a very sad day and it changed my life forever.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy, who grew up staunchly Republican and voted as one until 2016, had never heard the term Christian Nationalist. And now the two men behind the so called Number one Christian Nationalist podcast were living on her street.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

CJ Lives down here, four houses from

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

me Nancy worried about how the town might be fooled by Ridge Runner. Not because they were uninformed, but because they had other things on their mind. Jackson county, where Gainsborough is located, is one of the poorest in the state.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

And I did not know how many people were going to be concerned because they had to figure out how they were going to get their next meal. I couldn't get people to understand the gravity of the situation.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Gainsborough has a live and let live kind of attitude. There were some folks who had concerns at first, but those faded. Some weren't worried at all. Others likely couldn't pass up a top dollar offer for land.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

We have such a low voter turnout in the city that they knew that this was a place that they could take over and plant their flag.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

As they said, Gainsborough has just 605 registered voters, and if they move 50

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

families in, then they could take over the politics and the government. And I was a city alderwoman, okay? And I know that I had a landslide with 130 votes and the next person was 100 votes. So if they got 50 people to move in here, yes, they could take over our little town.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Gainsborough's protests kicked off with a small gesture. One of the podcasters had gone to social media to say how much he hated what white educated women had done to America. So Nancy, being Nancy, walked to the square and asked the owner of a local gift shop to print a T shirt with a slogan on it, dangerous educated Women. She wore it around town. It was her first public act of resistance.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

I just was trying to figure out what I personally could do.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy began contacting her neighbors, old co workers, a local pastor, restaurant owners. She estimates she spoke to 50 people.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

And then slowly, people started getting on board.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy was consumed. She spent an hour every morning researching while she had coffee. And in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep, my closest friends,

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

they were concerned because they said, you're so obsessed by this. I said, I think we all need to be.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy realized she needed to do even more, something that the podcasters on her street would be sure to see.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

We need to let them know that everybody on their street and surrounding them are not okay with their views.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

So in came the lawn signs.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

They said, haight has no home in Gainsborough.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

On November 30, 10 days after the town hall, Nancy posted on Facebook, anyone want a yard sign? Message me. The requests rolled in. Yes, please. Amen. I want one. I need six of them.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

We had signs all over this town in everybody's yard on the side of the road.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

300 signs in all. In a small town, it felt like they were everywhere. Someone put up a billboard too, right on the main road into town. It read, small town, big heart here. Nasty notions play no part. Gainsborough, where all are welcome. A few weeks passed. The holidays offered a bit of quiet and much needed normalcy for the town. Then, at the start of the year, Josh Abattoy, the head of Ridgerunner, made a surprising overture. An invitation to talk not to Nancy, but to her neighbor, who promptly shared it with Nancy.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

And he said, I'm reading, quoting. I moved to Gainsborough over the summer. Phil's mistaken reporting is not how I would have chosen to be introduced to my new neighbors. I would love to grab coffee sometime and dispel what Phil has said about me and my company. Hopefully the warm welcome to all people.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Abatoy has denied being a Christian nationalist. He says the podcasters are not Ridgerunner ambassadors, they're customers and they don't speak for the company. Ridgerunner says its community will be built around a shared ethos of land, liberty and legacy. As Nancy kept reading Abatoy's invite, she saw an opportunity.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

We've been happily invited several times to the Dairy Queen Morning coffee and have gotten the ability.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

He was talking about a weekly coffee clash of local veterans that he and CJ the podcaster had been joining to meet people.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

So you're welcome to come as well. And so we did. We just took more than one person.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It would be the first time. Everyone who had been anxious and alarmed would gather in the same place as their new neighbors and they'd have breakfast at the local Dairy Queen.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

A group of people in the community wanted to just do a show of community unity.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

That's Mark Dudney, the historian. What's your mindset like walking in that morning?

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Eat some bacon and eggs.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

Dairy Queen is not yours and we are aware of what you're doing.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

That same morning, Brian Allen, the metal detector guy, got a text from a friend telling him, go to Dairy Queen now.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

Okay, I'll go get a sausage biscuit.

[4imprint Promotional Announcer]

I don't know.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

But I walk in and I'm like, all these people are like, what is going on? Is it free Dilly Bar or something? Free Blizzard?

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The place was packed, every booth taken.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

I was like, what's going on? Like, is that, oh, there's a sit in.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

It would come to be known as the DQ sit in.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

People that I argued with on Facebook politically are there and they're mad. And I'm like, oh, God, thank you. Both sides of the political spectrum being there was chill inducing. Like, it was like, all right, we got this.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

We were expecting about 30, 35 people, and about 75 showed up. I've never been so proud of my community. The one thing that you have to process is that this is so foreign to us. There is no guidebook available, you know, about what to do.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

I come in and so I see Abatoy standing over there.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Josh Abatoy, the CEO of Ridgerunner, just

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

seeing him like a jump scare, like,

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

Abatoy came in and I went straight to him.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy wanted to talk about the house across the street from her where one of the podcasters lived.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

I introduced myself and I said, I know you purchased that. And he goes, no, I didn't purchase that.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Josh Abatoi is right. Actually, his dad bought it. But to Nancy, all Abatoys led to Ridgerunner.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

And I said, yes, you did. He said, how do you know that? And I said, well, I give one hour of my life to you every morning over coffee doing research. So I called the owner that sold it to you.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Nancy decided it was time to say her piece.

[Nancy Pruitt (Retired Art Teacher, Gainsborough Resistance)]

So obviously you purchased it and then you did a quick deed and put it in their name for whatever reason. I said, I don't know. And I said, and then Isger moved in that next day, I guess, and that's when he got frustrated and didn't want to talk to me anymore.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

I sat down next to CJ Cassie

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Kessler, the restaurant owner, slipped into a booth next to the podcaster and I

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

said directly to him, I'm like, you know, why are you here? And he said, you know, we're from all different parts of the country. You know, we have a bunch of woke people that got elected into office and then came in and changed the whole town. And it just didn't align with us anymore. So we left. And I'm like, so what's the difference in what you're doing now to us? And he goes, well, you know, we're not trying to change your town. I looked right at him, I said, you say all these things about women. I said, but I own my building. I pay local tax, I pay sales tax, I pay liquor tax, I have employment, I have a nonprofit, but because I can't physically have children, I'm not worth anything. And he says something, God, something to the effect of, I have different beliefs than you, and I will tell you, and I hope he's listening. You were shaking like a leaf.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Josh Abatoid declined to speak with us for this story, but you'll hear directly from the podcasters, C.J. engel and Andrew Isker later in this series. A couple weeks after the sit in came the biggest standoff to date. Ridgerunner applied to join the local Chamber of Commerce, guaranteeing them public ribbon cuttings and gripping grin photos with the town's business leaders. Cassie Kessler, who was on the Chamber's board, said the news landed with a thud.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

As a board, we were not fans of letting them on, but we live in a democracy, so we wanted to leave it open to the people. We held an open meeting and there was not one member in that room that wanted them to be a part of it.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Next, the board hired an attorney.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

He said, you don't have to accept because things that they were saying, discriminatory. That went against pretty much everything in our morality clause.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

So the Chamber rejected Ridgerunner. From what folks remembered, the Chamber had only denied a few businesses. Some years back, it rejected a topless auto repair shop called Boob and Lube. Now the Chamber was denying Ridgerunner. It was Gainsborough's first official repudiation of the venture.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

We had a certified letter drawn up and we sent it to them with a full refund. I think they thought we were going to all cower with our tail between our legs and run away.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

After the denial, the Chamber received a letter from a lawyer in Missouri notifying it that Ridge Runner intended to sue the Chamber and possibly individual members. Members who it claimed, quote, knowingly discriminated or conspired to discriminate against Ridgerunner.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

That we were infring. We were discriminated, we were discriminating against them. Can you.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The letter demanded the Chamber preserve all communication regarding its decision to deny Ridgerunner. All emails, texts, faxes, floppy disks, metadata, video, audio, thumb drives, everything.

[Cassie Kessler (Restaurant Owner)]

Then you're gonna sue us. So then we're gonna tie up whatever little money we have in legal fees, which means our Christmas parade gets canceled, our tree lighting gets canceled, because we have no funding to do that. So now you get to go tell the town that you canceled Christmas. Go ahead as a bunch of Christians, tell this town that all of our Christmas festivities cannot be put on because your feelings are hurt. Cause you didn't get into the Chamber and you didn't get your propaganda picture. Get the fuck outta here.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

The threat letter hung over Gainsborough. So did Ridgerunner's growing stockpile of land, which they almost always paid for in cash. Then, exactly a week after the DQ sit in, Ridgerunner announced its largest land purchase yet. 450 acres an old family farm they'd acquired for $2.5 million, a stunning price by local standards. All told, Ridgerunner now controlled upwards of 1,200 acres in the county and beyond. Ridgerunner's footprint was growing so rapidly it now eclipsed the size of Gainsborough itself. Locals would soon discover that this venture was connected to something much bigger, a vision of turmoil, collapse and a new America. Next time on Our Town.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

Tell us the response to this, this dangerous venture of yours. Has someone already bought the land?

[Andrew Isker (Podcaster)]

Yes, it's being divided up and sold, you know, as we speak.

[Brian Allen (Metal Detector Enthusiast)]

We need cities on a shining hill.

[Bloomberg Tech Minute Host]

There's no question that they were brought here intentionally.

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It means I was chosen by God.

[Bloomberg Tech Minute Host]

The old order was all coming to an end.

[Mark Dudney (Historian)]

She was determined to see what they

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

were about their pouring money into this.

[Bloomberg Tech Minute Host]

And they have a lot more to pour. They will start with one state and they have chosen Tennessee as that state.

[Meriben Knight (Narrator)]

Our Town is written and reported by me, Maribanite and Susan Burfield. Rebecca Lacks is our senior producer. Ken Armstrong edited the show with additional editing from Rebecca Lacks, original score and sound design by Alex Sugira, fact checking by Annika Robbins, additional production and editorial support from Julia Weaver, David Fox and Laura Newcomb. Special thanks to Bloomberg's Alana Sussnow, Bob Blau, Kristen Powers, Anthony Mancini, the Big Take podcast team and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producer is Nicole Beamster.

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