Essays from West of 98: An Adaptable Ecosystem
Last time, I asked the following question: have you ever stopped to actually consider your community’s “why,” whether historically or currently? Did your community develop with a purpose, or did it arise simply because there was a market in the unique moment that it was established? Did your community develop with a purpose that has since disappeared?
As we move forward with the discussions of communities as ecosystems and how to revitalize our local ecosystem, it’s important to discuss the necessity of change. Change is not only acceptable, but vital. Last week, I observed that many of America’s largest cities developed as trading settlements. That does not mean that they stayed the exact type of trading settlement forever. In the early 1600s, Dutch settlers established a trading post on Manhattan Island. That trading post dealt heavily in furs. I’m not breaking any news in October 2021 to observe that New York City is no longer dependent on the fur trade. As more settlers poured into North America, the merchants of New York City adapted to their needs. As the American colonies transformed into the United States of America and as that nation became industrialized and then transformed into the world’s primary superpower, New York City’s economy continued to shift and change as a result.
Thinking back to last week’s discussion of the great book “Start With Why,” America’s most successful cities are a good example of the “why” prevailing over the “what.” If a city gets caught up in meeting a particular demand, it is in a heap of trouble if and when that demand evaporates. Imagine if New York City’s leaders had insisted on the fur trade as their purpose in life. Instead, the fur trade was merely the first iteration of the city’s true purpose as the premier trading capital of a continent.
Our rural communities are no different. At least a decade ago, I heard a great description of how cities adapt to economic changes. Alas, I cannot remember the author that conceived the idea. In short, rural communities have an origin story as either a mining town or a manufacturing town. Mining towns were set up for the purpose of extracting and selling something. It might be a literal mine or it might be an economy based on some other resource. Manufacturing towns were developed to build something. Over the years, as economies changed, manufacturing-style towns were much more adaptable than mining-style towns. Mining towns had the purpose in a what—“we have a specific thing, let’s get it and sell it.” Manufacturing towns were oriented around a “why”—“let’s build something that the people need.” As the local resource dried up (or demand disappeared), the mining town often dried up as well. As the demand for a manufacturing item changed, the smart manufacturing town found something else to build.
To be clear, this is a general rubric. Some mining towns adapted nicely and some manufacturing towns are defunct. Generally speaking, there is a lesson here. All our towns have seen changes in their economies over the years. Some changes are good, some changes are bad, and some changes are just changes. It is a guarantee in life that our local economies will continue to change. Adaptability is an absolute necessity, just like in nature. Ecosystems rarely stay the same. New animals or plants enter and the ecosystem orients and adapts. Last week, I told you how America’s grasslands developed in symbiosis with grazing animals. Specifically, they were meant to be grazed by massive herds of bison that roamed the North American continent by the millions. When the bison were all but exterminated, the grasslands met the demand of millions of cattle that were brought onto the plains by the settlers.
New York City adapted its purpose from the fur trade to the needs of the world today. The grasslands of the North American continent adapted from herds of bison to herds of cattle. Rural communities, like the grasslands that surround many of them, must also adapt. A community with a purpose can and will adapt. A community without a purpose may well dry up and wither away like so many mining towns of the American West. Which one will we be?
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.