They weren’t, and the volatile face-off–the Republic had stockpiled arms and booby-trapped the woods–ended quietly the next day. At first, Fort Davis had all the depressing hallmarks of a tragic confrontation: like Ruby Ridge and Waco, there were armed extremists in a remote place, suspicious of outsiders and wanted by the law. A troubling mix–but with patience, family ties and flattery, the real state of Texas shut McLaren down.
The siege began when McLaren’s “defense forces” kidnapped a local couple, exchanging them for one of their own members who had been jailed on weapons charges. For a week, Texas officials waited. Then, on Friday, the police used the pull of family: they persuaded the daughters of McLaren’s common-law wife, Evelyn, to ask their mother to surrender so that she could see her 2-year-old grandson. The next morning–just after the police provoked the Mayday call –she did.
But McLaren was still inside, in touch by phone with a member of the fabled Texas Rangers, Capt. Barry Caver. (McLaren has an abiding respect for the Rangers, who trace their origins back to the days of Texas nationhood.) Evelyn also called, saying, “Honey, now is the time to come out–the tanks are going to start rolling.” Then Caver agreed to sign a mutually drafted “ceasefire.” McLaren was touched that the Ranger took him that seriously. In a cowboy hat and a tweed blazer, the ambassador conducted a precise ritual: standing outside the embassy, McLaren and three of his men embraced, laid down their arms (10 rifles, ranging from semiautomatics to assault weapons, and 70 rounds of ammo) and gave themselves up. Two others fled into the woods with guns.
Ironically, McLaren isn’t even a Texan. A transplanted Missourian and failed organic vintner, he fancies himself a defender of a latter-day Alamo–the fort where 147 Lone Star loyalists died. A sworn enemy of the “new world order,” McLaren nevertheless begs the United Nations to help him. A foe of the federal government, he’s supported by Evelyn’s pension as a postal worker. Though historians reject the group’s contention that the United States improperly seized Texas in 1845, the Republic still turns out torrents of papers and Web pages attacking Gov. George W. Bush.
Life can now get back to normal around Fort Davis. The town remains unincorporated because “people want as little government as possible,” says Kelly Fenstermaker of the chamber of commerce. But residents are tired of McLaren. They’re especially sick of his paper terrorism–thousands of liens he has issued against his neighbors. These bogus claims can stymie everything from the sales of homes to the execution of wills. McLaren used to say he filed the liens because he was at war with an illegitimate legal system. Now that he’s in custody and facing criminal charges, he will find that the system is all too real.
