The Daily Yonder | Your Top Source for Rural News and Storytelling

Camo hats with neon text. Carhartt. Talks of faith, freedom, personal rights, and rural voters.
This is what a political rally for a Democratic Vice Presidential candidate looks like in Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter era. In an age when mainstream artists celebrate their small-town roots, it’s become cool again to be country....

It was a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon when I walked through the streets of Kennett, a small town in the Missouri Bootheel, camera in hand and looking for folks to photograph.
I passed sights unique to the town but common to rural America: A longtime movie theater, its legendary bakery, a WPA-built courthouse and some buildings where it looked like the past was a better place to be. A sign on a clothing-store-slash-salon thanked...

Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom...

For countless communities across our nation, a strong rural education means a strong public education.
Last year, I visited Hatton-McCredie Elementary School, a small, rural public school in Kingdom City, Missouri – a town of little less than 150 residents. My tour was led by two fifth-grade guides, Paxton and Haylee....