Inside America’s Whites-Only Town Where New Arrivals Are Vetted to Help ‘Preserve European Identity’ – And Leader Believes Nazis Had ‘Redeeming Qualities’

Tucked away in the Ozarks of Arkansas is a small community of around 40 residents.

Homestead developments like this are not unusual in rural America, but what sets this one apart is who is allowed to live there.

Applications are open exclusively to white candidates who are of full European ancestry, reject homosexuality and embrace what founder Eric Orwoll describes as traditional European values.

Orwoll leads Return to the Land, a private white-separatist membership association with over one thousand members.

Only a handful of families, however, are selected to live in its 165-acre Arkansas settlement near the town of Ravenden, where idyllic social media videos show goats and chickens roaming the grounds, children playing, and members building wooden homes and churches.

But behind the tranquil homestead lies a community whose leaders promote hard-Right ideology online, while its children are homeschooled and taught that even historical atrocities such as the Holocaust and slavery have ‘two sides to the story’.

At a time when much of the Western world celebrates diversity and multiculturalism, Orwoll has emerged as one of the most outspoken advocates of racial separation.

Orwoll doesn’t believe his movement is racist. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he repeatedly insisted Return to the Land is about ‘preserving’ European identity, rather than promoting white supremacy.

‘I think what we actually advocate is tolerance, free association, and self-determination. I don’t think the movement itself is white supremacist. Are there people within the association who hold white supremacist views? Probably.

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While Orwoll’s community is happy to accept those with white supremacist views, they draw the line at those who he says hold ‘non-traditional’ religious outlooks.

‘We wouldn’t automatically reject someone for being Christian, pagan, or agnostic, but if someone holds what we’d consider a non-traditional religious outlook – for example, they’re a militant atheist who is intolerant of traditional religious beliefs – they’re probably not a good fit for the association.’

To join Return to the Land, applicants complete a questionnaire and then have a 15-minute phone interview.

During this call, candidates are asked about their views on various topics, including same-sex marriage, gender identity, vaccines and abortion.

‘The interview also focuses on values. It’s not solely about race. For example, we ask how often someone thinks about the Roman Empire because we see it as part of a shared European heritage and want people who value preserving it,’ Orwoll explains.

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He insists Return to the Land is a peaceful movement concerned with preserving European identity and says he has nothing against Black and Jewish people and would support them creating their own separate communities.

Yet posts and videos shared by senior figures in the organisation’s online channels perpetuate Holocaust denial, claims of ‘Jewish infiltration’ into society and rhetoric that downplays the harms of racial segregation.

Among the most prominent voices is Peter Csere, one of Return to the Land’s leading figures and a close associate of Orwoll.

In public Telegram channels, Csere has posted the number ‘1488’, a reference widely associated with white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology.

The number combines the ’14 Words,’ a white supremacist slogan, with ’88,’ a code for ‘Heil Hitler,’ as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

Orwoll himself has also spoken of the prospect of a ‘second Hitler’ and has praised former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

He is closely connected to a wider network of hard-Right influencers and extremists, including white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes.

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Orwoll, who uses the name Aarvoll online and has amassed almost 100,000 followers across social media platforms, has repeatedly warned that America’s changing demographics pose an existential threat to white Americans.

Ironically, the 36-year-old’s upbringing in a diverse community near Los Angeles helped shape the beliefs he now champions.

He attended an arts high school and grew up surrounded by neighbours from different backgrounds, including many Jewish families, experiences he says pushed him toward his current worldview.

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When teaching about American slavery, he says he would explain its wrongs while also discussing the Barbary slave trade, where many white Europeans were enslaved by Muslims and sold into Africa and other regions.

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As for the Holocaust, Orwoll says the death toll numbers have been ‘exaggerated’, and children have been taught ‘a very one-sided narrative’ through ‘Hollywood propaganda,’ which he would work to change.

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Outsiders have been rattled by evidence of extremist influence. During a media visit last year, Hitler’s notorious manifesto Mein Kampf was spotted on Orwoll’s office bookshelf.

In advocating for ‘traditional European values’, Return to the Land also discourages interracial marriages.

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The movement also rejects what Orwoll describes as a ‘homosexual lifestyle’.

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Before embracing his current lifestyle, Orwoll appeared in live webcam sex shows for money, the Daily Mail revealed last year.

His former wife of 11 years, Caitlyn Smith, with whom he shares four children, was also his online porn partner. The couple divorced in October 2024.

On her Chaturbate profile under the username ‘Openmindedsexualencounters,’ her listed interests included ‘Men, Women, Trans, Couples.’

Despite that, Smith still lives in the Arkansas settlement, where the community attempts to shield children from exposure to LGBTQ lifestyles.

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The organisation is currently facing a legal battle after being sued by Michelle Walker, a woman of Jewish ancestry who alleges that Return to the Land discriminated against her based on race and religion by denying her the opportunity to purchase land in the community.

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