What becomes of a town when its heyday has passed? What convinces young people to stay when good jobs vanish? Those are questions many towns across America have been trying to answer for years. And they were on my mind when I headed to Independence, Kan., with a dwindling population that's now below 9,000. It's in the southeastern corner of the state, not far from the Oklahoma border. Independence has much to boast about. It's where Mickey Mantle played his first season of professional baseball, in 1949. It's the hometown of one of the first monkeys to be sent into space : Miss Able, in 1959. At its peak in the early 20th century, with oil and gas money fueling prosperity in Independence, it was said to have more millionaires per capita than any other city in the U.S. Now, if you're from Independence, you still wear that name with pride. Just about everyone we talk to tells us it's a great place to raise children. People are especially proud of their annual Neewollah festival. It's
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