People In The Emptying Parts Of Rural Kansas Insist 'We're Not Going To Let Them Die'

Rural Kansas has a storied past, but decades of population decline stand poised to turn many once-vibrant places into ghost towns.

The struggle for survival reveals itself in emptied Main Streets, shuttered factories and tired-looking neighborhoods dominated by houses built before World War II.

An exodus that started more than 100 years ago and gained momentum during the Great Depression has now thinned the population of most of the state’s 105 counties to fewer than 10 people per square mile.

“Quite a few counties peaked in the 1890 census in terms of total population and have never recovered,” said Kansas historian Virgil Dean.

At 2%, Kansas’ population growth rate lags far behind the nation’s 6%. And it’s uneven. Most of it is concentrated in the state’s urban areas — Kansas City, Wichita, Lawrence, Topeka and Manhattan. A forecast by researchers at Wichita State University projects growth in less than a fifth of the state’s counties over the next 50 years.

Still, Kansans fighting the trends cling to a different vision. They insist that population isn’t the only measure of a livable community.