A nationally known neo-Nazi is training his followers in militarized weapons and physical fitness at a site in Springfield.
Former U.S. Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, who gained notoriety online and in international neo-Nazi circles, began last year inviting white men drawn to his violent, neo-fascist ideology to come to Maine, the whitest state in the nation.
With land a half mile off Bottle Lake Road nearly cleared, Pohlhaus, the founder of Bluttstamm, or Blood Tribe, is preparing to build hemlock cabins to establish his base camp in Springfield, according to his livestream messages.
“I am proud of my boys working till dusk at the camp and we are seeing results,” Pohlhaus said on Telegram, referring to intense physical fitness drills, weapons training and preparing the land for future use.
On Wednesday, a Bangor Daily News reporter observed the Moores Road property and as Pohlhaus has said, they have been clearing portions of his 10.6-acre property that sits off a narrow dirt and stone road in this town of 409 people.
Pohlhaus’ Springfield project is an example of organized extremism taking root in Maine.
“It should be a concern when neo-Nazis are effectively in your backyard setting up target practice and training with firearms,” said Jon Lewis, research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, on Thursday. “[Springfield] looks like it could be the early stages of something that could easily develop into a far more significant and prevalent threat to the community, and becoming keenly aware is essential.”
The intelligence community has determined that the threat of racially motivated violent extremist attacks continues to be a concern, according to the Maine State Police. While there have been no high-profile attacks in Maine, the threat exists and will continue to exist, police said.
But what Pohlhaus is doing is not unprecedented.
It is not uncommon for neo-Nazi groups to purchase rural land for compounds, training bases and strategizing violent acts while downplaying what they are doing as harmless, according to experts.
Take Rinaldo Nazarro, the leader of the accelerationist — believe violence is the only way — neo-nazi group, The Base.
Similar to Pohlhaus’ Maine purchase, Nazarro bought 30 acres of land in remote Washington state, about an hour south of the Canadian border, to train followers in 2018. This small group of neo-Nazi extremists was making bombs, ammunition and deadly gas from the rural Washington camp, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.