"Green acres is the place to be..."
Category: Society & Culture...
Posted Thursday, February 03, 2005 at 02:56 PM [GMT-6]

Deb Thompson over at Write Lightning points us to the Best Places to Live in Rural America, as chosen by Progressive Farmer Magazine. As with any such list, there is bound to be some bragging and arguing over who made the list and who didn't.

The magazine chose the following locations for its Top 10:

  1. Fauquier County, Virginia
  2. Oconee County, Georgia
  3. McPherson County, Kansas
  4. Callaway County, Missouri
  5. Grafton County, New Hampshire
  6. Gillespie County, Texas
  7. Sauk County, Wisconsin
  8. Wilson County, Tennessee
  9. Eagle County, Colorado
  10. Rankin County, Mississippi

Texas has one location in the top 10, but it's also the only one in the Top 100. Gillespie County is home to Fredericksburg, a gem of a thriving German-heritage community that is on the brink of becoming a small city...with all the woes that kind of growth-spurt brings. However, there is still lots of undeveloped land to be had in the vicinity if you've got the cash or the collateral, and it's certainly one of the prettier parts of the state.

The thing is, it's not exactly an undiscovered secret. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting an escapee from San Antonio or Austin, and the Texas-limestone-and-wrought-iron business is bound to rival the oil bidness in terms of a boom. This area may technically qualify as rural...but not for long, and not in the same manner as, say, Santa Fe County, NM, which came in at #51 as the only county in the state to crack the top 100. In fact, the Southwest seemed to be underrepresented in the list.

Makes for interesting reading, if nothing else.

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Comments

I agree with you. The "rural" counties mentioned in Texas are all mini-megalopolii. Or on the verge of becoming such.

Where is Loving County. Mentone?

Posted by: Wallace-Midland Texas at February 3, 2005 03:28 PM

Since Fauquier is in my neck of the woods, I'll chime in here. It is a lovely part of the fringe of northern Virginia. Many who live in the northeast corner work in DC - that's a long commute. But they have good schools and it's nicely rural. I was surprised it was listed 1st only because of it's proximity to DC - it is considered a suburban county.

Posted by: jen at February 3, 2005 03:39 PM

Wallace, you've certainly nailed the "rural" part of the equation! ;-) My vote would be for Orla, though.

Jen, I was surprised a bit by the relative affordability of the housing. I figured the prices would be through the roof. (Not that I could afford to buy there anyway, but I figured they'd be even higher above the national average than they are. I wonder if the data is a little out of date.)

Posted by: Eric at February 3, 2005 03:47 PM

It's no wonder that there are very few in the Southwest - the website is progressivefarmer.com. It's almost like a list of the top 100 counties to have a farm on. That's why most of the counties are in Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and other midwestern states. If you go to regional top 20 though, out of the Southwest Texas has 12 of the 20.

Posted by: Bert at February 3, 2005 10:59 PM

What do they farm in Fredericksburg, anyway? Cactus?

I'm kinda glad Texas didn't get any respect. Keeps the prices low for me.

Posted by: Scott Chaffin at February 5, 2005 08:29 AM

Well, there's not much traditional flatland farming, but I have seen some pretty good fields of milo and alfalfa. Mostly, though, I guess it's stuff like orchards and, within the past decade, vineyards.

I suspect that the kind of folks who are buying up the land around Fburg and Kerrville are not avid readers of "Progressive Farmer."

Posted by: Eric at February 5, 2005 09:30 AM
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