The Des Moines Register ran the headline "Rural Surprise" on the front page of its print edition, but when I sought the story online, I found most prominently a series of videos featuring six millennial business owners in New Providence, population 228, in the central part of the state. The businesses include a flower shop, hardware store, photography studio, a cabinet maker, a trucking company, and district manager for a seed company, all started by men and women in their 20s and 30s.
The accompanying story reads, in part:
But this isn’t a column about rural neglect and decay. It’s about the new — the surprisingly vibrant business community in this tiny town of 230 people whose downtown anchor is a 154-year-old retail store.
Speck can step outside his front door, glance in every direction and see a business district full of young talent: Ali in her flower shop, Blake with sawdust billowing out of his wood shop and a roadside sign down the street for Slade’s seed dealership.
Believe it or not, Speck is one of a half-dozen entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s who in recent years have forged a millennial business backbone for New Providence.New Providence Hardware is said to be the oldest hardware store in Iowa.
It takes the combined ages of all six — 174 total years — to surpass the length of time Speck’s hardware store has stood in New Providence.
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