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

Jessica Mendoza (0:00)

Hey everyone, it's Jess.

Our colleague Erich Schwartzel is here to guest host today's episode. Here it is.

Delsia Bare (0:11)

Not the one up here at the top, the one down there.

Ida Huddleston (0:12)

You got four-wheel drive.

Erich Schwartzel (0:14)

All right. Off-road in here today, Delsia.

Delsia Bare (0:17)

I told you it's going to get rough and ready.

SPEAKER_5 (0:19)

All right, let's give it a go.

Erich Schwartzel (0:21)

I'm behind the wheel of a beat up jeep driving the backwoods of Maysville, Kentucky. Riding co-pilot and guiding me is a woman named Delsia Bare.

Delsia Bare (0:33)

Just don't cross the bridge that's in front of us.

Erich Schwartzel (0:36)

Delsia is nearly blind from diabetes, but she's able to direct us using only the map in her head and the feel of the road beneath us. We're in exactly where you say we are.

Delsia Bare (0:48)

Well, that means I've measured off of my head all these years.

Erich Schwartzel (0:50)

She's lived here on her family's land for her entire life.

Delsia Bare (0:54)

Like I said, hold over to the right, hold on to something if you're in the back, and you need to put a little speed to it.

Erich Schwartzel (0:59)

Okay. Hold on. There you go. All right. Here we go. Well done, Delsia.

You got us there. We're at our destination, a clearing tucked away from the road.

Delsia Bare (1:15)

This is where I stayed most of my childhood, and I stayed down here on horseback all the time. It's rough and wild, and nobody can get to you from the outside.

Erich Schwartzel (1:25)

Delsia says she spent 40-some years here riding horses.

Delsia Bare (1:29)

In school, they called me Double Delcey, Red-Headed Delcey, Fat Delcey, Cowgirl Delcey, Yeehaw Delcey.

I walked through a bullying from hell over here at Mason County School System. And when I step off that bus, I'd step back up on that horse's back and leave him all behind.

Erich Schwartzel (1:50)

Delsia has had a number of horses in her life, but her favorite was named Rebel.

Rebel was wild. But this spot is where Delsia broke him.

Delsia Bare (2:01)

Running Rebel is what we call him. Went up and down every hill on this piece of property, 297 acres of hills here. That horse was a foam bath of sweat. He never stopped running. We come back up to the gate, still have my fingers wrapped in his mane. I don't know where the reins was at.

We went back up to the house and I rode him ever since.

Erich Schwartzel (2:24)

Wow.

Delsia Bare (2:25)

He died 33 years later.

Erich Schwartzel (2:27)

33

Ida Huddleston (2:28)

I kept that horse for 33 years.

Delsia Bare (2:30)

He outlisted all the men in my life.

Erich Schwartzel (2:34)

At 54 years old, Delsia says she expected life to stay as it always had on the farm.

Delsia Bare (2:40)

I just figured I'd be riding horses up to the time I drop dead and chasing these cows around here. But, I don't know.

That's pretty much a cowboy attitude, I guess.

Erich Schwartzel (2:51)

But things changed last year when a company started buying land in Maysville. At first, no one knew why.

Then, Delsia and her neighbors learned that it was for a campus of data centers, one so gargantuan that it would be bigger than two central parks. Since then, Delsia has wound up in the middle of a contentious battle with a tech giant and with her own neighbors.

Delsia Bare (3:20)

This is dad's land, and it's grandpa's land, his dad's land, and then grandpa's dad's land. If I'd let go of it, it can't ever be bought back.

Ida Huddleston (3:30)

If you don't have the land, you don't have nothing.

Erich Schwartzel (3:34)

Delsia's mom, Ida, is 83 years old and lives just down the street from her.

The developer wanted a portion of her property too. Together, mother and daughter were offered a life-changing amount of money. For their land, they would receive $26 million, and they said no.

Ida Huddleston (3:58)

I've lived here in this home for 50 or 60 or 70 years, and I intend to try to die in it. And that's why I don't want a data center aggravating me while I'm trying to die.

Erich Schwartzel (4:13)

I have to say, that is the thing that sticks with a lot of people when I tell them this story, is they have a hard time imagining turning down $26 million.

Delsia Bare (4:23)

Well, there must be something wrong with me and mom, because it didn't seem like it was much of a problem to us.