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I have been trying find a place to move to that is the country side but not far from a functioning small town that has good schools for kids. I was looking at whitetail Montana but not set on it was wanting reach out and see if anyone knew any places in the u.s that has decent countryside and small town nearby?? (No bashing please try read another thread and was nothing but fighting so please don't do that here)
Can you define "countryside", "not far" and "small town" a little more narrowly? Every town is surrounded by countryside , and some think Syracuse is a small town.
I've been in nearby Plentywood, but my memory is unclear/ Wiki seems vague about whethee Whitetail is currently populated. Frost has been recorded in every month except July. but I guess you know that. The traffic flow on the road through Whitetais is probably zero since it now dead-ends there.
I'd never heard of Whitetail, MT, so I looked it up. WOW, talk about the middle of nowhere. Google says the population is 32 people. I guess your shopping and schools would be in Scoby, MT with about 1,200 people. Billings as the big city 5+ hours away. I'm guessing there would be a lot of issues moving to such a small town as Whitetail. Looking at pictures on Google, it looks like a ghost town, with an active post office and grain storage along the road and railroad tracks. Have you visited this area before?
OK, for small places. OP, if you can give us some more info: like budget, work needs (good internet for working from home?), health needs, a bit of a reason for such a small town, etc.
A few places I'd look that have a bit more than, or nearby, than Whitetail, MT, but still in the north.
Montana: (I lived in Great Falls) Fort Benton, Havre, Cascade, Belt: Functioning towns near Great Falls. Outside of Lewistown. Twin Bridges, Whitehall, Dillon, Phillipsburg all nice small functional towns by themselves. Many, many others too.
Many towns in Idaho too. (I live in Mt Home): Think of Gooding, Shoshone, Richfield, Carey, Arco, Fairfield. All fairly easy to get into Twin Falls or Boise. Many other small towns that would feed into Pocatello, Idaho Falls, or North Idaho too.
Oregon: (grew up here, married in La Grande). The NE corner of the state has many small towns that feed into La Grande or Baker City OR, or maybe into Walla Walla, WA. Look at Cove, Summerville, Imbler, Union, Elgin, North Powder, Hanes, Sumpter, Dayton, Milton-Freewater. Plus many more around John Day, Dayville, Mitchell, that could feed into Prineville and Bend, OR as your big cities.
Anyway. These are just a few functioning small towns of the many in the areas. Many are many miles to a big city, but are nice and safe and have functioning schools, grocery stores nearby, and likely decent internet in the area. More info from you could help us narrow down what you might really consider moving to.
The Driftless Area of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota has mostly well kept functioning small towns with plenty of outdoor recreation opportunities, and generally good public schools. Unlike much of rural America, there isn't an obvious steady decay there, and there isn't any real urban encroachment either.
In NY, I'd say places like Cazenovia, Skaneateles, Marcellus, Homer, Weedsport, Clayton, Clinton, Cooperstown, Honeoye Falls, East Aurora, Sackets Harbor, Dexter, Owego, etc.
Some of this will depend on the budget and how rural you want to be.
The Sandhills of central Nebraska comes close to Whitetail. Hyannis and a number of otheer towns within that circle fill the bill. Western Oklahoma feels about the same, but a closer drive to a Sonic/Walmart town,
The combo of "small town" and "good schools" is generally going to mean college towns. Remember that the best predictor of student test scores is parental education. In college towns, your kids would be going to school with the children of professors, grad students, and admin staff. Whitetail, Montana looks extremely remote and your kids will probably be going to school with the children of cattle ranchers. Nothing against such folks (we Americans need our burgers and steaks), but book-learning isn't something that most care much about.
Of course, "good schools" is basically a dog-whistle term anyways. No reason that your kids couldn't get a good education in such a place, but don't expect the school to do everything for you.
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