FREE LAND! Go West young men and women.....if you dare.

Empty House on the Prairie

By BOB GREENE
Published: March 2, 2005, Wednesday


CHICAGO -- IF you and your family would like to move to Crosby, N.D., not only will the town give you a free plot of land on which to build your house, they'll also throw in a free membership to the Crosby Country Club.
If you and your family would like to move to Ellsworth, Kan., not only will the town give you free land, they'll also give you thousands of dollars toward a down payment on the house you build if you have children who will attend the public school.


If you and your family would like to move to Plainville, Kan., not only will the town give you free land, they will also drastically reduce the property tax on your house for 10 years, and the first-year tax rate will be zero percent.

The logical question, upon hearing all of this, is the one I presented to Plainville's mayor, Glenn Sears:

What's the catch?

Mr. Sears paused for a good seven seconds before answering, as if the question itself did not make sense. Then he said, ''There is no catch.''

But there is a requirement: that you pack up your life as you now know it, and start again in Crosby (population 1,100) or Ellsworth (population 2,500) or Plainville (population 2,000). The free-land offer is the result of one of the most significant American stories of the last century, one that has received sporadic attention because it has unfolded so gradually: the inexorable population flow out of rural areas, toward larger cities...cont'd

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E5DF133DF931A35750C0A9639C8B63

You have to live in Crosby, North Dakota.

Free land is no good unless free house, food, clothes, medicines, etc. come with it. Kids leave these places because there are no jobs. No jobs means no money. Sometimes free is worth exactly what you paid for it.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

just an idea

wonder how fast the town would rescind their offer if that happened

As has been shown in several U.K. cities, the influx of a gay community can transform a place from a failing dump into a growing thriving hot-spot (though I doubt that even we could turn N. Dakota into a hot-spot).

There he is, touting the wholesome simplicity of small-town midwestern values. Yet not long ago, he had to resign from writing his column because he was using it to to troll for underage girls to have sex with him. Do they think we don't know he is a sleazy, sanctimonious phony?

ain't good for much else...

google on Buffalo Commons.

if they wish.
Except for the Native Americans, home is NOT where the buffalo roam.
Just took about a century of blood, sweat and tears to figure that out.

If ND had good jobs i would move there within a heart beat.

Not at all. I can think of a number of people who are down on their luck who would do it in a heartbeat if there were jobs.

I like adventure. But no job is a no go.

And it is too damn hot here want to move NORTH.

ND is like Ireland in some places nothing what I expected just need to get my second half to agree with me. Also a wonderful place to raise my daughter.

Or do you have to sign some kind of contract, I would imagine that them just handing over a chunk a land is going to involve a lot of paperwork.