Where Is the Most Remote Place in America?

America is an expansive country, with such a diverse set of locations and geography. Something we've been blessed with due to our later settlement as a country is a few areas in the country that are still entirely rural. Looking across the lower 48, it's not a dense mapping of large cities, but instead a ton of farmland and rural areas that surround the cities. Rural regions are always something I've found very interesting, the dynamic is entirely different from city life, so thinking about where these rural areas are and what life is like there is a question that can be fun to answer. So today we're going to look across the country for the most remote and rural regions, and talk about why they're so rural, and what life is like. Before this video starts though, please consider subscribing to the channel, we're so close to my lifelong goal of 100,000 subscribers, so if you enjoy geography content like this, please consider simply subscribing, because it would help me out a ton. Thank you very much. So let's start by getting a few things out of the way. The most rural place in the US is definitely in Alaska. The state is filled with so many areas of complete and total wilderness, with nobody around you for possibly hundreds of miles. There are some insane locations here, but like I say a lot on this channel, that is totally boring. If you wanted to know the most rural place in Alaska, it would probably be around here, where there are zero people in this region. But let's move to the lower 48, where we might find a more interesting and relevant answer. So looking at our beautiful 48 states and talking about rural areas, obviously the first place you'd think of is the western US. The difference in population density between areas east and west of the Mississippi is pretty stark, but actually there are just a few very rural and remote regions in the east as well. In fact, a couple of them are even in the original 13 colonies. The first of these would be northern Maine. Northern Maine, and specifically northwestern Maine, is probably the best example of an extremely remote area in the eastern US. Looking at the regions north and west of Millinocket, there is basically nothing. This region has no incorporated cities or paved roads, being mostly dominated by mountainous wilderness and lakes. A lot of it is owned by the timber industry, with a good chunk of the land being owned by various companies, which has actually had a pretty big effect on the overall landscape over the course of history. The region is home to Baxter State Park, which holds the beginning of the Appalachian Trail and Mount Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine. This park is a good representation of the region, being founded for the sake of preserving the wilderness. And I think that needs to be remembered, because as you've seen with some of these images, northwest Maine holds some of the most rugged terrain in this part of the US. So that's why the population is so low. In this square, the population is just 750, which I think is pretty insane. More very rural areas can be found in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York. This area does hold plenty of tourism, being home to the Olympics as recently as 1980. But specifically focused on the southwest quadrant of the mountains, the Five Ponds and Pigeon Lake wilderness, as well as the Black River and Ferris Lake wild forests, are home to really remote areas. Now, sure, there's more population here, since state highways 28 and 8 run through the region and are home to some development. So the highlighted area is home to 3,500 people. But between those small valleys with villages like Old Forge and Eagle Bay, it is totally undeveloped. But to end out areas that are technically east of the Mississippi, if you go by the Mississippi River's most westerly point, there's the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. This area, known for its amazing canoeing, is pretty much totally empty. So putting it pretty simply, this area is defined by former glaciation. Basically, if you didn't know, this area was covered by glaciers during the last ice age. So when they melted away, it left thousands of tiny lakes absolutely everywhere. And thus, the Boundary Waters were born. It's just a forest and water. So in this highlighted region, there's a population of just 400 people. But there are some regions even emptier than others. To the northwest of this is also Voyagers National Park, which is a big, more touristy area. But it's still just beautiful wilderness, which is rural, obviously. So with that out of the way, finally we can move to the western US, where the magic happens. This region, which is much more mountainous and less fit for rural development, makes for some empty regions. Starting with the Great Plains, there are always still small towns. But the overall emptiest part is northwest South Dakota, above the Black Hills and west of the Missouri River. I'll give anybody a dollar if they can genuinely name a city in this region, because geography Geography is basically my focus in life, and I had no idea. This area is not fit for basically any form of farming, so the focus is mostly on ranching. Now though this isn't as remote as some other areas, the difference in lifestyle is what stands out to me. There are native reservations for the Sioux tribe out here, which live in very different conditions. And it's something I think you really have to see to understand. This also means a lot of these areas are very low income. And I thought an interesting example of how this is seen is this YMCA in Dupree, South Dakota, which looks nothing like what you'd imagine a YMCA to be like. The population of this quadrant of the state is 18,000, but going by lifestyle and overall feeling, it's extremely rural. Another good one in this region is west Texas and southeast New Mexico. This area is much smaller, but it's home to Loving County, the least populated county in the nation, at just 64 people. This area has a population of just 1,000, and it's dominated by the oil industry, which pretty much single-handedly keeps it afloat. But that also means a lot of these cities aren't totally impoverished, and they're pretty well off because of the oil industry, as well as a bit of cattle. Residents of Loving County have a per capita income of $32,000, so this entire area has a very different dynamic than some other rural regions. Getting into, finally, a couple of our most rural and remote regions in the country, central Nevada obviously has to be mentioned, specifically this massive block in the middle of the state. Now this is the peak of the Great Basin, it's just desert and mountains, which makes for not only a very interesting topography, but also a pretty terrible place to live, which is reflected in the population. This massive 24,000 square mile chunk of land has a population of just 5,000, which is approximately 0.2 people per square mile. There's no water resources here or areas for farming, and mining is just about the only industry here anymore. Taking the town of Austin, for example, it's survived off relatively low production of silver and gold, with a population of just 167. And that's what a lot of these communities out here end up being. Looking at Austin's downtown, though, it's not like the area is entirely desolate or anything, with Austin staying afloat now off of tourism, which works pretty well for them. But none of these examples have been the real most rural place in the lower 48, though, and I do believe this one's pretty hard to argue whenever you watch a video like this on YouTube, and it's this region of central Idaho in the Salmon Chalice National Forest. I've always found this area incredibly interesting, mostly because almost nobody talks about it. I mean, the average person is imagining Nevada or maybe Utah when you ask them where the most rural area is, but this part of Idaho is pretty much totally empty. This area of over 3,000 square miles has an estimated population of 37, and in actuality, that could be closer to 10, which would put the population density at 0.003 residents per square mile. There's no cities, towns, communities, roads, or anything, and it's the best place in the lower 48 to visit if you want somewhere totally empty. This land along the Salmon River is fascinating, because there isn't even a high volume of tourism. You can go there and be completely isolated from anybody else, which I think is very interesting. There are so many other interesting rural regions in the US, though. I think the many aspects of day-to-day life in these places are worth studying. How do you survive without a city near you, and are the people here happy in their situations? It's one of America's coolest and most interesting qualities. Thanks for watching. Thank you to the members this week, Julius Landry, Justin R, Philip Monroe, Doug R, Queen Shee Fox, Davin Leavenwood, Robert Hinn, Midwest Railfan, Q Yames, Jake Huffs, Andres Quintaro, D S, Richard Horwell, Mick Kastner, Dee Garcia, Stephen Phillips, CJ Brick, Big Pasty, Resident Contrarian, Hazev the Wolf, Bunny, Brock Sanders, Steven Priestman, SB Wilder, Florida Jake, SirJayC17, Alex Williams, Mikita Martinov, Kurt Ainsley, Jerome McCall, KMS162, SirJayC17, JL Bryson, Rosebud4, DarkBird, Wolfwing73, Snydershwine, Benjamin Weddings, and Ryan Devon. 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