In June, I drove to Springview, a town of about 242 people in north central Nebraska, about 9 hours from my home in St. Paul, MN. I came to visit my first cousin, Sandy Lewis, and her husband Dave and daughter Katie (son Phillip lives with his wife in Chadron, on the western edge of NE). Sandy has taught science at the local county school for over 25 years and like she says, she’s not the department head but is the ENTIRE department, teaching physics, biology, chemistry and more, up to six classes each day.
Springview is the county seat of Keya Paha County, population 787, putting it front and center in what’s known in demographic parlance as a frontier county, with a population density of fewer than six people per square mile – those sparsely populated areas of rural America that are geographically isolated from population centers and services — the remote end (along with “wilderness”) of the rural-urban spectrum. Springview still has a grocery store, weekly newspaper, post office, and several other business and services supporting the community of people spread far across the county (and into other counties in and around this area bordered by South Dakota and the Missouri River to the north and the Niobrara River to the south).
As you will see in this lively conversation between us rural, urban, and micropolitan first cousins on the challenges and joys of living in a frontier county, “rural America is anything but simply farmland and is anything but uniform”, borrowing a sentiment from the Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies work . Like life in its urban counterparts, life in frontier USA happens amid a complex layering of isolation and strong community ties across the miles.
So tune in here at our YouTube Channel and hear the story first-hand, taped from Sandy’s dining room table in Springview and Karin’s living room in Winona….and see some photos below that are referenced in the video…..
Below are also photos of the Lewis Greenhouse that Sandy’s family runs each spring/summer and some street scenes in Springview. Life and work are bustling behind the quiet views.
Rural-Urban MN Twin Talks 