Towns offer free land to newcomers

Billy and Sheila Canaan just wanted out of Baton Rouge. They didn’t expect to be bit players in a new movement to keep the Great Plains from emptying.

Standing in one of his corn fields, Dale Richter is optomistic that this year’s crop will be the best he’s had in years.

Billy gave up a $90,000-a-year deputy sheriff’s job for one that pays a third as much. Sheila kept slipping on the thick ice of a bitter Kansas winter and broke a rib. Son Clayton reluctantly started his senior year at a new high school. To their Cajun palates, Midwest cooking had all the zing of roasted cardboard. (Clayton keeps hot sauce in his locker.)

So why Kansas, when other rural states offer the same unhurried pace and relaxed lifestyle the Canaans sought? And why Ellsworth, a town of 2,900 with one grocery store, one stoplight and no mall, no fast food and no movie theater?

Free land is why. Ellsworth’s pitch is this: Agree to build a house here and pay nothing for the lot it’s on. Got three kids in school? OK, that’s worth $3,000 toward a down payment. Need jobs? We’ll help you find them. Still not sure? Come visit, we’ll show you around.

By John Ritter, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-08-land-cover_x.htm