Just past one mobile home, neat piles of seven or eight tires stretch out 15 feet. Beyond them, wooden pallets have been stacked to form a C-shaped wall. Human silhouettes have been spray-painted in red on some of them. They are pocked with bullet holes.
And on that mid-September weekend, there was a large explosion.
"We heard a big boom, a big one," said Cliff Demos, who lives about a mile away with his wife and horses. "It was right over there," he said, pointing up the road. "It was huge. It was huge."
The FBI says a September 12 field training exercise there included making a bomb as part of a domestic terrorist plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that has led to six men being charged at the federal level and eight more with state crimes.
The FBI says the Luther property belongs to Ty Garbin, and he along with eight others were training there for a possible attack.
But Garbin's lawyer, Mark Satawa, says there is much still to learn.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Satawa said the FBI's account of that weekend omitted details about his client's reaction and willingness to participate.
He confirmed that Garbin, 24, who has been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, was at his property with others and there was an explosion.
The government's case states one of Garbin's guests, Barry Croft, had brought what he called his "chemistry set," which included components to build an improvised explosive device with a firework, black powder, and pennies as shrapnel. Later that same day, the group put the device in the clearing by the wooden targets featuring human silhouettes, according to the FBI, and Croft set it off.
According to Satawa, that was a breaking point for Garbin.
"He had a smoke bomb in a balloon set off on his property that he quickly disavowed, took away, and said 'we're not doing this anymore' to the people that were doing it," Satawa said of Garbin, adding he questions whether his client was even aware of the bomb plans.
"Did anyone tell him in advance that they were bringing explosives? Did Ty Garbin say to anyone, 'You can't bring explosives'? Did they do it with his consent or with his wishes or against his wishes? Did they do it with his knowledge or despite his knowledge, without his knowledge?" Satawa asked.
But the FBI's account states that two months earlier, at another training exercise, Garbin had already helped Croft build a homemade bomb -- that time with a fuse. It was faulty and did not detonate, the FBI said.
The federal criminal complaint against Garbin and five others also details a message Garbin sent in response to an informant in an encrypted chat that alludes to what a bomb would do to a bridge close to Whitmer's vacation home, if they wanted to use an explosion to delay the arrival of law enforcement.
Satawa says the paid informant is relied heavily upon in the government's initial case. He adds that, in general, there is a trust deficit when it comes to paid informants.
The case against the 14 men follows a monthslong investigation using informants an
