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          DE SMET, SD

          CIVIC LIFE

          Small towns win big honors: De Smet & Bucksport

          Two small towns come out strong in a national poll. They're among our favorites, and we're glad for these results.

          FROM THE READERS

          From your towns to our inbox, notes from South Dakota and North Carolina and more.

          “Our Towns” Reader Response Roundup features film screening feedback, a unique effort to support libraries nationwide, and national perceptions being addressed at the local level.

          JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS

          They lost their local paper. So they created a new one--during the pandemic.

          A local paper with a longer history than its home state suddenly shut its doors, for good, during the pandemic. How an entire community willed a new publication into existence--and avoided becoming one more American "news desert."

          JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS

          The Mysteries and Lessons of South Dakota

          Small cities, potentially big lessons. What a state that is home to 800,000 people can demonstrate to the country as a whole.

          From the Readers

          American Futures Master List:

          Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go "There is more going on, in more places, than you imagined."

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          This is the site of the Our Towns Civic Foundation, dedicated to connecting innovators, reformers, civic-patriots, and dreamers across America. The reports here are based on travels and interviews over the past decade by Deborah and James Fallows. The ongoing accounts will emphasize local voices on how communities are adjusting to the economic, environmental, and technological opportunities and challenges of the era.

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