Local leaders and rural revitalization experts say Texas’ smallest towns can survive — despite a shift to urban and suburban counties — but it will take investments.
Here is a list of celebrity appearances at San Antonio restaurantsSAPD searching for person who shot 16 times into North Side homeCornudas, with a population of less than 20, hosts a chili cook-off hoping to draw more than 1,000 visitors on Sept. 28. Small towns like Cornudas have struggled to grow along with the state's population.— a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.
The High Plains and West Texas regions are home to billion-dollar industries with agriculture and energy production — lawmakers have long boasted it’s where the nation gets its food, fuel and fiber. However, the illustrious industries are held together by people living in rural Texas, who are now moving to anchor cities like Lubbock and Amarillo, the resource-rich hubs in the region that can provide the jobs, housing and opportunities that a small town can’t.
“Rural Texas is hard,” Perry said. “The weather is pretty intense, the economy and opportunities for kids to stay are limited. Those that are there are partly by choice, but most are there because they were born and raised there, and don’t have any other real options to move out.” It’s also one of two big employers in the county, along with the sprawling 260,000-acre Four Sixes Ranch.
The Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater is seen in March 4. Sweeetwater has become a wind energy powerhouse in Nolan County.Guthrie leaders face additional barriers to restarting their economy, such as limited housing. The dearth of homes is so bad that even some leaders can’t live in the community they serve. Ed Sharp, the interim-superintendent for the Guthrie school district, drives 129 miles from his home in Whitharral to work.
“There are markets that rural communities don’t have the resources to develop and identify, and the state does,” Perry said. “It’s incumbent upon the state to have those conversations.” There is a middle path. Tania Moody, executive director for Texas Downtown, a rural advocacy network, said small towns need to invest in quality-of-life infrastructure to keep young people and avoid the phenomenon called brain drain — the funneling of smart, talented youth from rural areas for better opportunities.
“All those people need houses now, restaurants, schools, we’re going to need to build roads for them,” Potter explained. “It feeds the construction industry, it fuels the economy.” Still, it is what some small towns need to survive. Texas Downtown is a member-based organization that assesses downtown areas and helps leaders revitalize them. Moody, the organization’s executive director, says some small towns that have accomplished this goal in their downtowns now draw in visitors from surrounding areas. This includes Goliad and its Market Days, a monthly open market that highlights local businesses, and the revitalization of the Wallace Theatre in Levelland.
Claude Mayor Joe Minkley speaks with a visitor in the Claude City Hall on Oct. 21. Claude is a quick drive from Amarillo, and its few businesses are centrally located in the downtown area.For the last eight years, Tessa Waddell has poured her dreams into FarmGirl Frosting, her bright turquoise clothing store off Highway 287 in Claude, about 30 miles east of Amarillo.
Despite the heavy traffic, the town population continues to steadily decline. From 2021 to 2022, Claude’s population fell by about 7%, from 1,307 to 1,218.
Demographics Rural Health Amarillo Lubbock West Texas High Plains Texas Legislature
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