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45 Degrees North: On Hauling Stuff
“That’s not going anywhere.” I would bet those are the words my dad spoke before the trip where a spindle-back chair made a kamikaze leap from the pickup bed to the ditch along I-65 in northern Indiana. My dad wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to misjudge the physics of gravity versus potholes multiplied by speed and wind. Rural ditches are littered with parts of the equation.
Q&A: Telling the Intersectional Stories of Rural LGBTQ+ People
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Rural Residents Search for Solutions after Devastating College Closures
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in Mile Markers, a twice monthly newsletter from Open Campus about the role of colleges in rural America. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox. A rural town,...
Solar Farms in Colorado: Fossil Fuel-Free Energy Comes With Controversies
Cathy Topper stood at the door to her house looking over the field of solar panels visible from just about anywhere on her property. “I finally have gotten to the point where I don’t cry all the time,” she said, as we sat at her kitchen table. The...
Notorious Attractions: Tourism of Infamy Draws Visitors to Small Communities
In the small city of LaGrange, Texas, with a population of just over 4,000 people, huge antique shows and a charitable bike ride draw many visitors every year. But it’s possible the infamous Chicken Ranch, reportedly the last brothel in Texas when it closed in 1973, generates more frank curiosity about LaGrange than more mainstream gatherings.
Commentary: Coming Back as a Gay Man to Rural America
I grew up as a gay man in rural Wyoming, but I was scared to live as my authentic queer self in my politically conservative and socially homogeneous hometown and state. I came out fully only after I left. My story seems to be similar to that of many queer...
‘If You’re Not Breathing, You’re Not Getting into Recovery’
Other versions of this story were originally published in Mother Jones and 100 Days in Appalachia. A 45-minute drive northwest of Asheville, Hot Springs, North Carolina, is an iconic Appalachian Trail town – in fact, the trail weaves through the heart of downtown. Hot Springs is rarified air in a Blue Ridge Mountain valley, open-armed, embracing.
Profile: University of Kentucky Med Student Chooses to Practice Rural Medicine
Shelley Stiltner hopes to make a difference in the lives of people who grew up like she did — whether that’s treating them as a patient, or inspiring them to become a doctor. Stiltner, who graduated from the University of Kentucky’s (UK) College of Medicine Rural Physician Leadership...
Lack of Family Support Adds to Rural Transgender Adults’ Health Risks
In a new policy brief, the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center said 47% of rural transgender adults felt their families don’t emotionally support them. When compared to other adults, rural transgender adults are the least likely to report family support. Having that familial support is an important...
A Landmark Investigation Brings Environmental Justice to Rural Alabama
This story was originally published by Grist. For as long as anyone can remember, the lack of a sanitation system in Lowndes County, Alabama, and resulting reliance on piping human waste directly into septic tanks and local creeks, has made life in the community miserable. After years of organizing and calls to action by the residents of this rural, low-income, and largely Black community, Earthjustice and Alabama grassroots leaders submitted a civil rights complaint, alleging racist neglect by Alabama public health officials. In response, federal authorities launched an investigation.
Video: Comedy Festival Brings Laughter — and Life — to Paris, Texas
According to my not-very-scientific poll, when you bring up Paris, Texas, everyone thinks of the movie where a disheveled Harry Dean Stanton stumbles out of the desert with no idea who he is. The actual Paris, Texas, is very clear on its identity. According to ample amounts of civic pride, they are the place with the little Eiffel Tower wearing a red cowboy hat. But let me break it to you, Paris: you are so much more than that.
With Billions of Dollars on the Line, DOT Program Helps Small Towns, Rural Areas Handle Grant Applications
More than a year after the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, rural communities are struggling to access the money designed to help them rebuild roads and bridges, experts say. With more than $110 billion in new funding on the table, government agencies and consultants are working to...
Another Rural Entertainment Roundup
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
Commentary: Kentucky’s Choice of Poet Laureate Strengthens Diverse Rural Voices
After Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Silas House as the new poet laureate of Kentucky, there has been a significant backlash against his appointment from Republicans who claim that House “hates” Kentucky. The Republican Governors Association called him a “radical” who thinks most Kentuckians are “bigots.” Meanwhile, a...
The Movement to Stop Dollar Stores From Suffocating Black Communities
This story was originally published by Capital B. For years, the Reverend Donald Perryman wondered why the formerly thriving Black downtown of Toledo, Ohio, couldn’t get a grocery store. His suspicions were confirmed after a city study found in 2020 that the opening of new Dollar General stores drove...
Four Rural Sites Listed on Annual ‘Most Endangered List’ for 2023
Four rural historic sites found their way onto the list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places released recently by The National Trust for Historic Preservation. “I would say that rural sites were well represented,” said Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “We had four sites on the list, that are in rural areas spread across this country, from Arizona to Louisiana to Mississippi and Georgia. Each of these sites varies differently, but also tell really important parts of our shared American story.”
Renewable Energy Meets Affordable Housing on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation
This story was originally published by Homegrown Stories. When storms on the Pine Ridge reservation, home of the Oglala Nation, in South Dakota begin to build, they can be seen from miles away. Above rolling hills, clouds turn into waves and bring the rain. Strong gusts of wind stir up the smell of dirt and sagebrush. Wildlife begins to move along the Badlands long before the weather hits ground and radio broadcasts from KILI radio station warn the community of what’s to come. Evidence of the storm comes slowly at first, setting the scene and then it hits all at once.
At 33,000 and Counting, Tennessee Is Documenting Historic Cemeteries in Statewide Database
In 2019, a contractor working for the developer of two Tennessee businesses bulldozed a historic cemetery, scraping old tombstones off graves and dumping them in a large pile of dirt and stones. A cemetery preservationist, arriving at the site to help maintain the Rutherford County cemetery, discovered the demolition and...
Weird and Wondrous American Byways
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition. Maybe nothing is as quintessentially American as a road trip. Whether an arrow-straight highway through a vast desert or a hairpin one-laner wrapped around a mountain pass, byways connect us to the variety of landscapes and cultures that compose the nation.
Q&A: Organizing a Music Festival, Underground
Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
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