I come from a small town, but I'm going to argue there are different classes of small towns- it's not just based on number of people. Geography means a lot:
INNER SMALL TOWN
I come from one that's closer to 3 thousand people, a graduating class that fluctuates year to year around 100 kids.
Everyone knows each other, gossip travels fast, last names carry weight, but the city is within earshot of major cities. You have to drive about 10-15 minutes to get groceries but there's major retail outlets and services within a quick drive.
OUTER SMALL TOWN
Then you got your small towns that may dwindle in population, going down to several hundred or so. A number of towns will have to get together to make a school district, but at least they're close to each other. Grocers will vary, but major services, retail outlets, and major box stores are an hour drive or more away. It's not a day trip, it's a trip that takes a day to get to Target, Wal-Mart, etc.
REMOTE SMALL TOWN
Services are far away but even basic things like internet, power, and aid from the rest of the country come from just one route. There are choke-points everywhere. Many people are forced to wear different hats to keep the community going. The Medic is also the Priest, who runs the museum during the week. The police and national park services are either locals, or folks from out of town that do their 'tour of duty' here for a spell. Everyone has the tools to get by in the tough times.
STEWART, BC -- REMOTE SMALL TOWN
This is a town of just a couple hundred people that survives on both tourism and mining. I've had the opportunity to hang out here for almost a week because I'd decided that I'd been moving too much. I want to get into a community a bit, and I picked a town at the dead-end of a spur of a highway with a rich history. Perfect for me.
Geographically, Stewart is situated in a fjord. By definition, a fjord is "a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley."
The word Fjord has it's origins in Norwegian, but it's entered the English geographical lexicon as it's proven to be very useful and specific to a particular type of glacial-made valley that goes to the ocean. The maps around here haven't been updated, however, so Stewart finds itself situated on the "Portland Canal" a long fjord that begins at the Pacific Ocean and ends at Stewart.
The fjord is the border of Alaska and British Columbia, a border that was disputed and settled long after the US purchased Alaska.
I've had the opportunity of being a fly on the wall during many of the conversations of the townsfolk. Small talk to them is vital information sometimes. Planned power outages, local road conditions (both with weather and the actual state of the road), and supply shortages.
For example, here's a situation I overheard between one of the owners of a campground and a provincial groundskeeper foreman:
THE STORY:
A few nights ago a local Stewart woman had been driving late at night part 2AM when she got into an accident. Causes are unclear, but when she flipped over into the ditch on the only road heading into Stewart, it started a fire. Someone had arrived on the scene and got her to help. The fire, however, wasn't able to be controlled.
Once the rescuer was able, they sent out a distress call to the 'on call' phone in town. It was unfortunately not rotated to the correct person, and the campground owner, who was on call the night before and still had the phone, had to jump out of bed and get the local Mounties on the phone to notify them of the fire. Is it large? Is it going to cut Stewart off or burn Stewart down? She has no idea. She calls dispatch and no one is there. No answer. Their only lifeline to the rest of the province isn't answering.
She then gets dressed and calls people, getting in touch with with the local fire brigade asking who is on duty or who can answer this fire call.
The real scandal is why Mounties didn't answer. Without that vital lifeline, the city had to go into defensive mode, people were roused awake outside of their normal process, and their principal line of communication to the rest of the province was cut off. Fortunately, folks found the fire had not gotten out of control.
Another scandal:
Someone in town, and they wouldn't say who, had appraised their house at an amount FAR HIGHER than any of the other houses in the city. This is a town of only 500 people at a small port, so it seems to be a gross overestimation. As a result, however, the whole town got into an arms race, each overestimating the prices of their homes causing values to skyrocket. Now, it's almost impossible for anyone to move into town and many homes, already over 100 years old, are entering irreversible states of decay.
I also found out a very useful bit of information, I was going to be a part of the Isolated Small Town experience: The whole city of Stewart will have a scheduled power outage from 9AM to 7PM Saturday. Meaning, get your cash, get your groceries, charge your phone and portable batteries, prepare for cold showers, and don't plan on hitting up restaurants.
I planned to wait out the outage by going on a ride up to the Salmon Glacier, the largest glacier in North America that you can drive to.
Upon my return, you could hear the entire town humming with generators. Businesses, homes-- "Everyone and their mum" had one. I couldn't help but smile hearing it all.
It was just another day in Stewart.
JT- 8/21/2022