NEBRASKA: Forgotten Rural Towns FAR OFF The Interstate

all right everyone I am out in the country in Nebraska here let me show you on the map there I am the blue uh Arrow or the blue dot with the white Arrow so Omaha is to the South East got Sioux Falls to the north uh Des Moines over here straight East nowhere near an interstate I am definitely in the country um let's see one of the things I was going to start doing is showing you my miles so uh let's see here we go can you read that 94 215 miles on the Bronco right now anyway I am in the town of Randolph small town about 880 people here now Peak population was 100 years ago in 1920 there were 1338 people here median age of this town is 39. now I'm gonna make a return here and head into downtown and tell you some more 55 percent of the town is female 88 percent of the town is white nine percent is Hispanic last three percent is mixed I didn't say Sunday last Sunday in June so it looks a little quiet we're getting close to Fourth of July so they've got a lot of flags up it's about 10 A.M it's actually a little bit of traffic here and there for Sunday the median household income in this town is almost sixty three thousand dollars a year that's a little over 1200 a week that's the recurring theme in the towns I'm about to show you incomes are pretty high these you know this looks like a rundown fading town I mean here you're seeing it for yourself as I drive into downtown but the incomes in these towns they all look like this is really high so uh it's kind of an odd thing poverty is very low too uh seven percent in this town well guys I'm out on foot I decided I want to get out here and show you some of the treasures here in this little downtown oh there's a little wind hopefully you're not hearing too much winch here but anyway yeah welcome to Mrs Bubbas so it looks like they have a pub or bar of some sort down here a lounge that says this is pretty cool here let's check out the sign here let me get out in the light so you can see it better uh let me change this yeah how awesome is that huh that is too cool now here on the other side of the street looks like they have more pubs bikers welcome got a place here called the drunken moose drunken moose that would be something to see old Mountain Dew sign that's worth some money had a flea market anyway uh here we go Nebraska finest Meats all kinds of cool stuff down here Jim's Food Center right there looks like the town grocery store right here in downtown that's pretty cool now here in the middle of the intersection which looks like the main intersection of town looks like they have a bulletin board yeah should we go see what it says Thursday night markets come hungry traveling tiger Tavern food truck will be at the farm Thursday night how cool is that huh squirt never and after thirst true words have never been spoken am I right it's a great old sign is it open I don't know if Mona's is open or not hmm yeah I think I'll head back to the car there's the post office by the way Randolph Nebraska let's see uh median home value here is 99 000. so that's pretty cheap so with twelve hundred dollar household income yeah you can make a pretty good living here another number that really stuck out for this town is the high school graduation rate 93 percent now there is the fire station that people often want to see Dalmatian statue on the front of it check it out see if you can see that pretty cool huh crime is a little 2.8 incidents per 100 people last year U.S average is 2.3 but the great majority of it that's property crime and there are a few assaults so I don't know you know what that sounds like to me is uh some people drinking in the bars there downtown or one of the bars maybe gotten an argument destroyed a chair or two a bar chair or bar stool so you got some property crime and he got assault what do you guys think if that's what happened it would not surprise me anyway Randolph calls itself the honey capital of the United States because apparently a significant percent of the population of this town are beekeepers there's that I was wondering if they had a place to get gas here they do Cardinal Express it's called uh let's see what the price of gas is here in rural Nebraska 317. for a gallon of gas here well I'm in residential and um this is pretty much what it looks like everywhere stop a lot of middle class homes all in excellent condition manicured lawns well let's see I'm on Jackson Street and here is a house for sale this one right here [Music] what do you guys think they want for that all right uh well with that I'm gonna head to the next town it's a cute little house yeah I'm gonna head to the next town I'm trying to get you six towns today so I gotta keep it moving well everyone I am entering the town of Belden Melton's very small there's just over a hundred people here Peak population was right at 100 years ago 1920 there were about 300 people here then median age is 38. 57 percent of the town is male [Music] so 43 is female the town is 100 percent White there's a very small downtown just making a quick stop here this town is uh kind of in the middle of all the other towns I'm visiting so I thought well let's take a look Eldon's garage Belden Fire Department with one garage looks like they have one fire engine I guess and there's the post office cool now this town like the last town has high median household income uh 76 300 a year that's almost fifteen hundred dollars a week median household income oh here's some more of the fire department and that looks new and modern doesn't it anyway yeah incomes again are really high even though it looks well I don't know I don't know if a fading town is an app description kind of looks real nice doesn't it uh there is older houses here 's one on you inside here oh wow would you look at that the potential there is incredible it's really an incredible looking house and even with all the faded paint there's kind of a beauty there isn't there that is something you think anybody lives there oh now let me give you the median home value of this town which is kind of surprising given that the median's household income is nearly fifteen hundred dollars a week but the home values here the median home value is 51 700. [Music] yeah a little over fifty thousand dollars you can get a house so high incomes coupled with homes that are inexpensive really does it make sense does it now how about poverty you ready for that .07 less than one percent of the town lives in poverty as defined by the U.S census what about children 17 and under it's usually worse right zero the poverty rate for children in this town is zero that's crazy [Music] the crime is a little bit higher than I thought it would be last year 3.2 incidents per 100 people so they had three crimes last year approximately ah anyway something huh fascinating town whoa and it is a farm town here let me adjust this gimbal I'm on the edge of town now and what do you see [Music] yeah a lot of farmland look at that yeah we see you guy yeah the houses a lot of them look just like this uh despite all the or despite the high income this is what yeah this is what a lot of the houses look like I mean the potential there in that house it's crazy there's a beautiful house there a little paint it's almost like some retirees are moving in with pretty high incomes and maybe they're just coming in and they're seeing cheap homes inexpensive homes and they're buying them up this is a lot of what you see this in a town with incomes nearly 1500 a week it's got a little Park here in the downtown just right here I'm back in the downtown or city center as they like to say in Europe interesting well just wanted to give it a quick look uh want to head to the next town [Music] let's take a look at this Caboose first though pretty nice addition to the downtown oh it looks like they have a bar of some sort or no it says Family Dining the brass belt Family Dining it's not open though amazing all right on to the next town next up the town of Coleridge now let's see there are a little over 400 people here in this town today Peak population was again third time in a row a little over 100 years ago in 1920. when there were 700 people here median age is 47. so this is an older town 51 of the town is male so 49 is female 93 percent of the town is white two percent is black one percent Hispanic one percent Native American in the last three percent are mixed now I'm heading towards downtown again the median household income is high a little over uh 55 000 a year that's a thousand sixty a week that people are living on couple that with local cost of living the median home value here is seventy one thousand dollars that's uh that's pretty inexpensive to get a house poverty is a little higher though here 16 percent yeah I'm kind of cruising into downtown here looks like the fire station is right here yeah there's the fire station and then they have a gas station right here looks like it's 324 for a gallon Hefner oil and feed a little store there now this town like the one a couple towns ago has a bulletin board and the main I guess you'd say the main intersection how funny is that see that again see what it says shall we uh Parkview Haven fireworks July 3rd at dusk bring chairs no food they don't want you bringing any food I guess let's take a look here look they have a bar and grill here too rodeos Bar and Grill let me adjust this thing yeah can you see that I wonder if that place gets Lively what do you guys think I have a quaint downtown though isn't it uh looks like they have a church here Pilgrim congregational United Church of Christ it's kind of pretty isn't it the building well let's see uh one other number I still have for you that is crime last year three incidents per 100 people U.S average is 2.3 now they have another little gas station here but I don't think there's any gas for sale Dino's Mini Mart it says but there's bags on all the pumps but it looks like the store is open so it looks like they've got a couple options for buying some Goods I don't know if there's a grocery store here I haven't even seen a Dollar General I have yet to see a Dollar General in any of these towns I just realized that have we find uh finally found a place where Dollar General hasn't taken over I'm wondering I am entering the town of Laurel Laurel Nebraska I'm gonna cut a left here and drive into downtown I took a drive through it once already it's really beautiful but there is no one here I know it's Sunday but it's about noon church is let out hasn't it I don't know look there's downtown it is wow there's nothing here or nobody here it's beautiful though uh let's see let me tell you about the town there are 970 people here [Music] Peak population was in 1980 there were a little over a thousand people so the town's pretty much holding its population median age is 36 so it's a little bit younger town 53 percent of the town is female so 47 male 94 of the town is white two percent Native American one percent Asian one percent Hispanic and then the last two percent is mixed it's gorgeous downtown uh I had read that in 2021 they spent 2.6 million dollars to revitalize this downtown you can see it yeah you can see where the money was spent [Music] the streets and sidewalks and the Landscaping it's really nice all the buildings look I mean they look in good condition it's pretty impressive now um like all the other towns median household income is high 56 000 a year that's almost 1100 a week that's pretty good money this in a town where the median home value is ninety eight thousand dollars which is inexpensive so yeah cost of living quite low here crime is really low last year they had one incident per 100 people so that's uh well the US average is 2.3 by the way well below that so that's about one crime 12 crimes total last year if my math is right now there's a little Supermarket right here right on the edge of downtown Hometown Market anyway here I am heading into residential and see the flags lining the streets it's almost Fourth of July which we will be spending in South Dakota I've heard Fourth of July is pretty awesome in South Dakota we're going to find out for ourselves we're going to be in Pierre the state's capital but we'll talk about that later you know it's funny I made the remark that I hadn't seen any Dollar Generals yet what do we see in the very next town Dollar General look here they got a little Motel pretty nice in good shape well I'm in residential now you can see for yourself it looks real nice [Music] now I haven't told you this yet but a really famous person was born here James Coburn now if you're older you know who I'm talking about your younger folk might not but I would dare say in the 50s 60s even the 70s that James Coburn was a superstar in acting he's one of the great actors of the time and one of the great actors in history [Music] anyway that's a small town I'm driving right right into uh the country pretty quickly well this little guy is just running around loose I guess you can do that in a small town well uh it's a lovely town uh this is pretty much what it looks like everywhere really beautiful you can see for yourself it's pretty awesome town so uh all right two more to go I am entering the town of Wayne now Wayne's numbers look a little bit different for previous first of all it's bigger there's almost 6 000 people here but some of the other numbers aren't quite as gaudy if you will as the other towns but it's because it's a college town Wayne State College is here there are about 4 100 students there so that's about 10 000 people here in the area 40 percent of them being college students so when you see the median age is 23 well then that makes sense um interestingly though I I looked at the breakdown of the population the age groups the biggest age group here is children 37 percent of the town is between the ages of 1 and 19. 37 percent another 30 percent of the town is ages 20 to 40. so some of that is college students I'm guessing but there are a lot of parents here as well young parents now the median household income is 46 000. almost 47 000 actually so that's 900 a week which is still pretty good but definitely lower than the other towns and I think that's where uh college students are making themselves felt you know because college students don't have much money they usually have very little income here's some other numbers 85 percent of the town is white nine percent Hispanic percent black one percent Asian and the last three percent is mixed uh poverty is pretty high 20 percent but again college students [Music] children 17 and under it's eight percent that's pretty low that's about half the uh what the US average is uh the number that is high though is folks 65 and older poverty level for them is 30 percent [Music] so that is uh quite High some beautiful uh houses here though beautiful neighborhoods another number that uh kind of grabs you is the high school graduation rate 96 percent that's really high and I think I found this Courthouse now there it is that is beautiful I'm gonna tell you about that in a second median home value here 136 thousand so that's pretty high homes are worth a little bit more here than the other towns yeah here it is Wayne County Courthouse built in 1899 that is impressive isn't it now that is richardsonian architecture I've shown you this type of architecture before Henry Hopson Richardson Was An Architect I think the late 1800s who used the Romanesque style yeah so this is richardsonian Romanesque which is 11th century medieval Europe in style but his architecture in particular looks like castles and you can totally see that can't you adjust my uh thing here that looks like a castle wow that's beautiful that is such an unusual building a famous person was born here pretty famous if you watched Walking Dead you know who I'm talking about Emily Kinney she was also in the TV show Masters of Sex I watched that also yeah it's a beautiful town I mean wow now they have a local chain of restaurants here in Nebraska called Runza I was told by a subscriber to no matter what go have one of their unique sandwiches all right nakalina I'm calling you out I'm gonna try one it better be good I've got my Runza sandwich some Mountain Dew to wash it all down with some crinkle fries I love crinkle fries yummy anyway this sandwich is reading about it a little bit uh they baked the the bread fresh here every day it's kind of a stuffed sandwich I guess or I don't know no I guess it isn't but it just looks like ground beef and cheese and some other things in there let's see if it's good mmm it is good reminds me a little bit of well I don't know what it reminds me of it is good though yeah it's none of your traditional burger for sure uh yeah you can see this it's got um ground beef and it's seasoned I'm not sure what's what but it's really good a little bit of cheese in there well all right there it is I have had Runza the horns on those guys those are beautiful animals very active well I'm entering the town of Wakefield I wasn't going to come to this town but then I for Laughs looked up the numbers and I'm like whoa this town is very different now there's 1500 people here a little over that's Peak population uh the town is growing median age is 36 pretty young Town 25 of the town is nine years old or younger and 23 percent of the town is between the ages of 20 and 39. those are the two big population groups what does that tell you parents with kids that's what that sounds like doesn't it Now 52 percent of the town is you're waiting for me to say white aren't you nope 52 percent of this town is Hispanic 47 is white and then the last one percent is mixed a little stop here check that out huh is that like a uh bowling alley maybe skating lanes and dining huh I got a store here the fair store it's a nice downtown American flags everywhere of course Fourth of July um you're seeing the Hispanic influence obviously tacos Valenzuela I think that's a restaurant got a Mexican market looks like of some sort Tienda Mexicana Aguero meets Dairy fresh produce okay now I know that they have a factory here an egg processing Factory that employs 800 people I thought I was going to have to look for it looks like I've already found it I bet you that's it over here [Music] look at this first though is that La michoango Canada restaurant and hotel how about that that's kind of beautiful now that's not kind of beautiful that's really beautiful anyway this Factory that employs 800 people I would guess that's the um top employer pretty safe to say I should be able to see it here to the left 800 people that's I'm guessing uh that's a lot of people I mean that'd be over half the town so obviously it's employs people from outside of town also but from what I understand post owns it the cereal maker yeah that looks pretty big and involved doesn't it let's it looks like there's more of it over here uh the residential area of the Town looks real nice let me give you some more of the numbers as I uh drive down some of these beautiful streets look at it really beautiful um let's see the median household income back up there again 53 000 a year that's a little over a thousand a week it's pretty good income with low cost of living median home values here are ninety three thousand poverty is very low 3.3 percent poverty very low um crime pretty low too 10 incidents per 1000 last year one thousand people Church U.S average is 23 so that's less than half the us as a whole all right everyone so that's going to be the end of this video we are heading up into South Dakota next we will be spending Fourth of July weekend up to the other side of the Fourth of July in Pierre the state capitol going to tour the capitol building see some fireworks there I'm also going to tour some small towns uh more towards the center of the state so those are coming up next be looking for them

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 110,272

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Id: o16tzyrAydw

Length: 39min 40sec (2380 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023