A Bolder Community: Group building Humboldt, Kansas for a new generation

Story graphic, K-State Research and Extension

A Bolder Community: Group building Humboldt, Kansas for a new generation

First Friday speaker says small towns can provide the best of life’s experiences

May 8, 2023

By Pat Melgares, K-State Research and Extension news service

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Call it a measured gamble.

A group of Kansas natives had an idea in 2016 to move back to their home state, but with all the amenities they had found and enjoyed in faraway urban locales.

Now seven years in, their bet is paying off in the small community of Humboldt, population 2,000, located two hours east of Wichita, and two hours southwest of Kansas City.

“My wife and I were looking for something different,” said Paul Cloutier, a designer who grew up in Wichita but was working in the technology industry in northern California in 2016. “I remember asking myself, ‘is technology really making the world better.’”

Cloutier is a partner and co-founder of A Bolder Humboldt, a dynamic group of people that states its goal as “reimagining and rebuilding our 165-year-old rural Kansas town for a new generation…”

Cloutier was the featured speaker during the May 5 First Friday e-Call, a monthly online series hosted by K-State Research and Extension that helps to nurture small businesses and inspire entrepreneurship in Kansas. The online discussions, which routinely host dozens of Kansas citizens from the public and private sectors, are available free each month.

The leap that Cloutier and others took in 2016 has gained international attention. In 2022, the New York Times published its list of 52 places to visit in the world; Humboldt, Kansas was listed as one of just 10 must-see spots in the United States.

“We believe that small towns like Humboldt can provide the best of life’s experiences,” Cloutier said. “Unfortunately, small towns across America have been disappearing for decades – and they aren’t making new ones – so A Bolder Humboldt is committed to forging a novel path forward.”

Since its inception, A Bolder Humboldt has helped lead projects that created at least a dozen new businesses, including a microbrewery, mercantile store, coffee shop, cocktail bar, bookstore, community garden and a campground, among others. Cloutier says there are more projects already in the works.

They host Friday night movies on the town square, and each summer, the entire community gets together for a water fight staged on the city’s streets.

“We want our young people to go off and experience the world, but then we want them to come home and share their new experiences and ideas,” Cloutier said. “We are trying to build a sense of community in these kids while they’re young.”

Cloutier says building community is “a long process.”

“It’s not a project,” he said. “Towns need continued care, continued maintenance. There’s not a start and end to this process. It’s something you’ll do the rest of your life.”

Cloutier’s full talk and other First Friday presentations are available online from K-State Research and Extension.

Sidebar

A Bolder Humboldt: Lessons Learned

Paul Cloutier, partner and co-founder of A Bolder Humboldt, shared eight lessons learned while helping to rejuvenate community life in Humboldt, Kansas.

Lay the foundation. Align groups that are interested in funding, forming vision and taking action.
Find your people. You’ll need risk-takers and vision-havers; momentum-creators and project-enablers; and volume-producers and energy-creators.
Tourism is not the only answer. You do need to create a reason for people to visit, but you also need reasons to move to a community (jobs, schools and housing), and reasons to stay (businesses and services for locals).
Don’t alienate the local folks. Cloutier uses an 80/20 rule: 80% of what you build should appeal to the local folks, while 20% of what you build can cater to attracting visitors.
Create new ways of working. Explore new models and look at how people are changing (what motivates people and what burns them out).
Understand your town’s ‘why,’ otherwise known as its brand. What is the town’s story that people can connect with? What can you do that other towns can’t?
Establish your vernacular – how you describe yourself. This can be your local ‘flavor,’ or personality.
Go beyond nostalgia. Save what is unique, but look to the future.

More information about A Bolder Humboldt is available at https://abolderhumboldt.com

At a glance

Small towns can provide the best of life's experiences, says Paul Cloutier, partner and co-founder of A Bolder Humboldt.

Website

First Friday e-call

Notable quote

“We want our young people to go off and experience the world, but then we want them to come home and share their new experiences and ideas. We are trying to build a sense of community in these kids while they’re young.”

— Paul Cloutier, partner and co-founder, A Bolder Humboldt

Written by

Pat Melgares
785-532-1160
melgares@ksu.edu

K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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