Homesteading, 21st-century Style

"Great Plains states like Kansas have steadily lost population in the last decade. To increase its population, Marquette (population:660) offers lots of less than an acre to those who will move there and build a home... The frenzy surrounding this community of 600 stems from its decision to borrow an economic development idea instituted by Abraham Lincoln: Give land away...a handful of central Kansas towns, including Marquette, have embraced modern-day homesteading as an elixir for their ills. Over the past two decades, hundreds of rural communities across the country have watched their schools and churches die out as residents, particularly the young, made a beeline for jobs and opportunity in larger cities. "

Thanks to Mary Reynolds