{"id":9874,"date":"2011-12-20T18:57:30","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T23:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=9874"},"modified":"2022-04-21T06:17:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T11:17:33","slug":"not-quite-obscure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/not-quite-obscure\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Quite Obscure Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are places so obscure that they achieve a level of notoriety in geo-oddity circles. Examples would include Loving County, Texas and Kalawao County, Hawaii, which are both revered in the county counting community<\/a>. No county has fewer residents than Loving with only 82 people recorded in the 2010 Decennial Census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalawao comes in a close second with 90 residents. However, its claim-to-fame isn\u2019t associated with population but with size — it\u2019s the smallest county in the United States at only 13.2 square miles of land. Both locations have been discussed on the Twelve Mile Circle (in “Is Everything Really Bigger in Texas?<\/a>” and in Smallest County in the USA, Part 1<\/a>) and on many other geo-blogs ad infinitum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odd geography enthusiasts go out of their way to visit Loving and Kalawao. Even the mainstream Press lauds attention on them with a regular streams of human interest stories. I guess reporters need to find something to do between news cycles. They\u2019ll trudge down to the Loving County’s seat at Mentone (population 19) and interview whoever decided to be sheriff that year like they’re the first ones that ever thought of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beyond the Spotlight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nobody every pays attention to the less fortunate counties that come after Loving and Kalawao, the remaining eight that round-out the Top 10 of the least populated. So let\u2019s give a little nod to those tiny places that aren\u2019t quite obscure enough to occupy the limelight. Here is the Top (bottom?) 10 as tallied by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Loving, TX (82)<\/li>
  2. Kalawao, HI (90)<\/li>
  3. King, TX (286)<\/li>
  4. Kenedy, TX (416) – easternmost county in the US with less than one person per square mile<\/li>
  5. Arthur, NE (460)<\/li>
  6. Blaine, NE (478)<\/li>
  7. Petroleum, MT (494) – newest county in Montana (est. 1926)<\/li>
  8. McPherson, NE (539)<\/li>
  9. Grant, NE (614)<\/li>
  10. Loup, NE (632)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    Nebraska<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s striking that Nebraska contains fully half of the least populous counties in the Top 10, albeit Texas also has a lock on several top spots. Clearly Nebraska has an opportunity to capitalizing on its unique situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We\u2019ve seen plenty of travel corridors created to promote tourism: wine<\/a> and beer<\/a> trails; exploration<\/a> routes; and nostalgic motor roads<\/a> to name a few. I propose the Nebraska Overlooked County Trail<\/strong>. Maybe visitors will get a little prize when they collect a stamp at each county courthouse or something. It wouldn\u2019t take a lot of tourism to create positive impacts in locations this small, so take a drive and hit a cluster of the absolutely most obscure of obscure counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n