'Country hicks' were offered life-changing $26m for their farmland... now they're being hailed as heroes after telling buyer to 'kick rocks and don't come back' after sudden change of heart

Published: 17:10, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 17:28, 16 August 2026 A Kentucky mother and daughter are being hailed as local heroes after refusing more than $26 million from developers seeking to buy their 1,200-acre family farm for a massive data center project.  Ida Huddleston, 82, and her daughter, Delsia Bare, 54, own neighboring properties in Mason County, Kentucky, where developers linked to a large data center project have been attempting to assemble land.  The mother-daughter duo said they were offered a combined $26.48 million for farms their family had cultivated for nearly 200 years. The company offered Bare $48,000 per acre for 463 acres and Huddleston $60,000 per acre for 71 acres.  Initially, they agreed to the deal but backed out after learning the land would be used for a 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale data center.  'Kick rocks and don’t come back,' Bare told the representative, the Wall Street Journal reported. Now, the two self-described god-fearing 'country hicks,' are at the center of a heated national debate they never thought would reach their front porch.  'I never thought I’d be in a battle with a data center,' Bare told WSJ. 'I thought I was about as far out in the boondocks as you could get.' The company behind the proposed data center had remained a mystery, but new evidence this month pointed to Meta. A Meta spokesman told the outlet that no decision has been made to move forward in the area.  Delsia Bare, 54, rejected about $22.2 million for her 463-acre property Ida Huddleston, 82, turned down roughly $4.26 for her 71-acre farm A Kentucky mother and daughter have refused more than $26 million from developers trying to buy their farmland for a proposed data center in Mason County While Huddleston turned down the massive offer, the data center company offered vast amounts of money to nearby neighbors. Some accepted, including a mobile home park where 28 residents, many retired or on fixed incomes, lived.  After Huddleston refused, the company shifted its plans and sought to rezone more than 2,000 nearby acres. The Mason County Fiscal Court approved the rezoning in May.  That prompted Bare to join a lawsuit seeking to stop the data center, citing concerns about its impact on the community, including new power and gas lines and pressure on the local water supply, local outlet WRKC reported. The mystery company has agreed to fully fund roads, water, sewer, fiber and electrical infrastructure, ensuring the community faces no costs, county officials said. The project is also expected to create 400 permanent, six-figure jobs.  But Huddleston doesn't buy it: 'I say they're a liar,' she told the outlet. 'That's what I say. It's a scam.' Huddleston’s grandfather and great-grandfather once nurtured the farmland, growing wheat during the Great Depression. She said she wants to preserve the family’s generations-old legacy.   Your browser does not support iframes. Local officials have claimed the data center could create around 400 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs 'What I believe in is something called Jesus Christ, and he said to occupy, wherever you’re standing, you occupy until he returns,' she told the WSJ. 'If I step off of this piece of property and it becomes something for an AI hub, then I have failed to occupy and I can be held accountable for that on the Judgment hour,' she added. Bare believes 'artificial intelligence will be the destruction of the human race,' and says she and her mother will continue to fight the potential data center project. 'Even if I had $26 million, I’d want to sit here in my chair, and have my coffee and eat my food where I always do,' Huddleston told the WSJ.