Free land for families tempts new pioneers to the prairies
By Tom Leonard
(Filed: 26/07/2005)
Once they came in wagon trains, scanning the horizon for Comanche. Now they come in family saloons, on the look out for good schools and amenities.
A century after the first settlers were drawn to the Great Plains by the offer of free land and a new life, a new generation of pioneers is being lured back by the same promises.
Madecadel Juarez took up the offer of a new life in Ellsworth. The deserted main street in Geneseo [above]
Desperate to reverse decades of decline and depopulation that are simply blowing some names off the map, dozens of small towns across the prairie states of Kansas, North and South Dakota have resorted to desperate measures to ensure they do not go the same way.
Sitting under big, blue skies and surrounded by endless wheat fields, Ellsworth was once the "wickedest cowtown in the West" but now embraces a far more wholesome image as it tries to attract clean-living, young families.
Move to Ellsworth under the "Welcome Home Plan" and you can have free land on which to build, home loan assistance, free utility installation and 12 months free membership of the local golf club.
The town will also help with the down payment on a new house - the size of the donation rising with the number of children you are bringing to the local school.
Applicants must be American citizens or have a US bank account.
The town of 2,100 - which with its even smaller sisters of Kanopolis and Wilson quaintly insist on calling themselves "cities" - boasts just one set of traffic lights but several restaurants.
Ellsworth county, which sits at the centre of the central state in the US, has problems shared by rural areas around the world - fewer people working on the land and a brain drain of college leavers who never return.
The county's population has shrunk from a high of 15,000 to 6,000.
Anita Hoffhines, Ellsworth's energetic executive director of economic development, said if the population keeps falling, the town will be unable to provide services and the "snowball effect" will prompt residents to leave.
So far, 17 families, many in the last few months, have taken advantage of the home incentive scheme, coming from as far away as California and Las Vegas as well as from other parts of Kansas.
Most are attracted by the clean air, relaxed lifestyle, good schools, almost non-existent crime and the town's Christian values.
The majority took a pay cut but, as Mrs Hoffhines pointed out, they are aware there is little to spend their money on in Ellsworth anyway.
Like those in neighbouring towns, she hopes high speed internet access will offset the state's geographical isolation.
"We need people who can come here and be part of the community," she said.
"It will suit urban dwellers wanting to get away. But if they expect to have a sushi bar, a Starbucks and a movieplex it will never happen. It takes a pioneering spirit - you have to be willing to move out of your comfort zone." She admitted the lack of anonymity is also a potential problem in a place where if you don't wave back to people, they know you're from out-of-town.
"There are only about 10 people who dabble in drugs and everyone knows who they are," she added. This new version of America's 19th century "Land Grab" is currently just a trickle but it is already changing the Mid-West's overwhelmingly white racial make-up.
The Juarez family arrived a few weeks ago from Vallejo, California, and are Ellsworth's first Hispanic settlers.
Having never lived anywhere that had snow, Madecadel Juarez, 46, a maintenance engineer, was a little pensive about the Mid-West's notoriously harsh winters, but he insisted Ellsworth was "paradise" for families.
"My boss said, 'If you don't know where your kids are, don't worry - somebody does'," he said.
Ellsworth's weak points include a lack of highly paid jobs - the local prison and an industrial valve manufacturer are the main employers - and the obvious potential for boredom.
The main excitement around here is when a tornado hits town, but Ellsworth hasn't seen one in living memory.
Opinion is divided locally as to whether it is indeed such a great place to live.
Her colleagues at the Crossroads diner waxed lyrical about rural bliss and doors that never have to be locked, but Jessica Sheesley, 23, a waitress and mother, grimaced.
"You go to work, go home, play bowls and then go to the bar. And that's about it. And I'm not joking," she said.
It could be worse, she added. "I went to see my brother down the road in Holyrood, where there are only 500 people.
''The only movement you ever see there is when someone throws a stone into the pond."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...as26.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/26/ixworld.html
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