Lifelong Missourian Caitlin Yager knows firsthand that there's more to Missouri than its biggest cities or most popular vacation destinations. Her new book, "Small Town Missouri," encourages people to hit the road to experience the legends, lore and attractions of 50 locales scattered throughout the Show-Me State.
On St. Louis on the Air, Yager shared how her work as a program director for the Missouri Humanities Council has provided a unique avenue for getting to know many of the towns featured in her Reedy Press "book-azine."
Rather than taking a travel guide approach, Yager said, she wrote the book to foster appreciation for the different kinds of connections and mutual benefits Missourians share.
That includes the flow of assets between rural and urban areas.
"So much of our economy comes from these small communities. You think about agriculture, you think about manufacturing. Small towns utilize places like Kansas City and St. Louis for things like major league sports and restaurants and major museums," Yager said.
"It's this give-and-take relationship, this push-and-pull that is so important to cultural heritage [and] the relationships between the people that have connections to Missouri history, national history, even international history."
Challenging popular assumptions about rural towns with small populations — a parameter that determined the pool of towns considered for the book — was also a goal.
"You might find a town of 15,000 people, but the town of 2,000 people might actually have more museums or hotels or restaurants. It's just not about the number," Yager said. "One big goal of this book is really to humanize small-town Missouri, small town America in general, and show that you really can't judge rural America just by it being rural. There are so many stories interwoven in these communities and so many different people that have roots here."
Sharing some of those stories, Yager described niche attractions, like ghosts in Neosho and Kirksville, historic spas in Excelsior Springs and community sites like Carl Junction's fully donor-funded library and all-inclusive playground.
She also named Pacific and Kimmswick as places whose topographic features keep urban sprawl at bay, which helps them maintain a small-town charm that's a short drive from St. Louis — Missouri's second-biggest city.
At its core, writing "Small Town Missouri" was about showing that "we all have stories worth sharing … and "respect[ing]," Yager said. "I want this book to help bridge the divide we often see between urban and rural communities and show that we need each other."
To hear how Yager arrived at 50 small towns for her book, why some towns are named after other U.S. states or foreign countries and which small Missouri towns hold a special place in listeners' hearts, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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