What are the best small and rural towns to live in?

[ringmastery]

[daveskilt]

1. the ones really near to big cities

[cornermouse]

2. It depends.

On whether you like plains, hills, mountains, freshwater fishing, saltwater fishing, no fishing, lots of trees, not many trees, warmer climate, cooler climate, shorter winters, longer winters. Just depends.

[RebelOne]

3. From what I have seen of Colorado,

a small town in the Rockies would be ideal.

[cornermouse]

4. Sorry. I've only been through Colorado twice,

but it was beautiful.

[The Lone Liberal]

8. Colorado is filling up with the rich.

a couple years back was there on Labor Day, from 20 miles north you could tell where Dillion was by the cloud of exhust fumes, yellow-brown dirty cloud hanging over the expressway into Vail.

[Robb]

11. Wrong side of things.

The Western Slope is filling up with progressives, young families who value lifestyle over high salaries. I kid you not.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Fayetteville AR

was #5 on the top ten places to retire. It is in the Boston Mountains, has a university, symphony orchestra, Bhuddist center, a wonderful food co-op, and is not far from Eureka Springs, home of a world-class blues festival every year.

If you prefer something more rural, there's Newton County, AR, which is an intersting combination of rednecks, ex-hippies, mystics, gay/lesbian communes, and artists of all kinds. Lots of lovely scenery, including one of the largest elk herds east of the Rockies. No building codes, very low taxes (just got my tax bill for the year-less than a dollar an acre!), lots of alternative energy, an alternative school for environmentally progressive people, and lots of politically progressive people.

[RC]

6. Define Small and Rural

There are approximately 200,000 people around here and I've heard this place defined as being small.

[Robb]

7. Mine.

We're near Ouray, Colorado, but I think it's less grim here than in Ouray town (where there's virtually no sun in the winter thanks to the canyon walls). Population around 700. 40 minutes from Telluride. 30 minutes from the nearest Safeway. Know all four cops personally, people always wave, always say hey.

[Ediacara]

9. In Montana

Missoula (pop ~100,000) and Bozeman (pop ~35,000) are pretty nice. Both are very progressive and close to fantastic outdoor activities both summer and winter. However, the trouble with Montana is EXTREMELY low wages and a rather high cost of living.

[asthmaticeog]

10. For a DUer?

I'd imagine a college town would be cool - any rural wingnut population would be mitigated by freaky kids. In Ohio I like Yellow Springs (near Antioch - very charming little 'burg) and Athens (Ohio U., but it's a big party school, very different student culture from Antioch, so there's that problem of drunks, but otherwise it's a neat place). Oberlin, you'd think would be a liberal mecca, but in terms of social problems it's like an inner city once you set foot off campus, just more grass and trees - much misfortune there, it's sad.

Then again, if you live in a college town, you constantly get sneered at as a "townie." Maybe I need to rethink this...

[LincolnMcGrath]

12. ARGO FAY IL