Looking down from Bellyache Butte.

• Author: Page, Laurie
• Position: Bellyache Butte

Editor's note: Why do young people leave rural towns? The Symposium on National Policy for Addressing Population Loss in the Great Plains went straight to the source, asking high school students to write about "Staying on the Plains." Here is one of the winning essays.

Bellyache Butte is a fortress-like hunk of real estate. They say that it got its name from an old timer who once lived at the foot of the butte. His reputation as a grumbler traveled far and wide. And though that rancher is gone, his reputation as a grumbler or a "bellyacher" remains, as it has for many generations. From the vantage point of this geological formation, I can look down on ranches and farms in the small rural community where I live.

When I look down from the flat top of Bellyache Butte, I try to visualize what this place looked like 100-200 years ago. It is not hard to imagine. Only a few physical features have changed: there are corrals scattered here and there, but mostly, it looks about the same. Next, I think about how it has changed in the last couple of generations. I mentally go up and down the road figuring out the average age of people who still live here. Almost everybody is in their late 40s and older. Most of the kids have left and found jobs elsewhere. Steven is working in the oil fields of Texas, Katie is attending college at Missoula, David is a carpenter in Helena. Only the older generation remains.

The exodus of youth is even more obvious in town. Judith Gap, located in central Montana, got its start as a railroad town servicing the local area as homesteaders started pouring in. The boom did not last long, however, for lack of rain and depressed agricultural prices halted further expansion. The town has continued struggling along, experiencing mini-booms and busts. The most recent has been a sawmill that hired over 40 full-rime employees. During the sawmill period, the school enrollment swelled to about 140 kindergarten to 12th grade students. After the sawmill burned and lumber prices plummeted, the mill permanently closed. Now the school has an enrollment in the 80s. Because education funding is based on enrollment, the declining numbers mean fewer teachers hired, fewer subjects taught, and therefore, less opportunities for entrepreneurship. Education provides the tools and skills needed to successfully compete in today's world. Consequently, many families are leaving for greener pastures (better pay ing jobs and education). The survival of...