82-Year-Old Kentucky Grandma Said No to $26 Million and Kept Her Farm
As data center developers keep looking for large rural sites across the U.S., land fights are reaching small farming communities. In Mason County, Kentucky, 82-year-old Ida Huddleston said no to a multimillion-dollar offer tied to a proposed artificial intelligence data center near Maysville. Her decision, first detailed in recent local and national interviews, kept her family on land they have lived on for generations.
A family refused a multimillion-dollar land deal
Ida Huddleston has lived on the same farmland outside Maysville since she was 16, according to interviews she and her family gave to local TV stations and People. The Huddleston family owns about 1,200 acres in Mason County, and several generations still live on the property. Huddleston and her late husband built a log home there and raised their family on the farm over more than 60 years of marriage.
Last spring, an unnamed company described in local reporting as a major artificial intelligence firm approached landowners in Mason County about a data center campus. According to those interviews, Huddleston was offered about $60,000 an acre for her 71 acres, or more than $4 million. Her daughter, Delsia Bare, said she was offered $48,000 an acre for 463 acres, putting her potential sale above $22 million. Together, the offers topped $26 million.
Huddleston told interviewers she rejected the money because she did not want to leave. Bare said she briefly signed a contract before backing out. Both women later said the deal did not feel right.
What is confirmed in Mason County
What is confirmed is that the broader project is still moving forward in Mason County even without the Huddleston land. Local reporting said a rezoning request was filed for nearly 28 agricultural parcels covering more than 2,000 acres. The local planning commission has since approved that rezoning, meaning the proposed data center would be built next to the family farm rather than on it.
County officials have said the project could bring hundreds of full-time jobs and more than 1,000 construction jobs, according to local coverage. At the same time, the identity of the company has not been publicly confirmed in the source material provided here. A full public list of all affected landowners also has not been released in the reporting cited.
That leaves some key details unresolved, including the final footprint, construction timeline, and operating plans for the site near Maysville. What is clear is that not every landowner agreed to sell. The Huddleston family remains on its property.
Why this dispute is drawing attention
The family’s stance stands out partly because of the size of the offers compared with local farmland values. Reporting cited the going rate for farmland in Mason County at roughly $6,000 an acre, far below the $48,000 to $60,000 per acre the family said they were offered. That gap helps explain why the proposal quickly became a major local issue.
Bare said fear played a role when she first signed, including concern about eminent domain and pressure from developers who did not identify themselves. She later said she withdrew because she did not want to leave the land. Huddleston said promised economic gains did not persuade her, and she questioned whether the jobs and growth described by officials would materialize.
For Mason County residents, the immediate takeaway is practical: the project is advancing, but one highly visible family has stayed in place. The proposed campus, if built, would sit beside the Huddleston farm, and county officials have continued to present it as an economic development project for the area.
