(AP) - Paul Bayless used to jet around the world for his job with a dot-com, coming home to Las Vegas for one month out of the year.
These days, Bayless stays close to home, so close that he needs only his shoes to walk to his new job as a corrections officer in Ellsworth, Kan.
Bayless' family and countless others are increasingly looking to leave the big city behind in favor of the stability and tranquility of rural life.
Helping to lure these families is the prospect of free land, a way many towns are hoping to shore up their populations. Great Plains states suffering from aging populations are taking a gamble that giving away land will help reverse the tide.
It's not clear how widespread the community-created land giveaways are. States don't keep track, but there's an informal network of these communities, trading tips and leading by example.
In mid-June, Tara Hosick, a development consultant for the state of Nebraska, registered the domain name nebraskafreeland.com to provide a central location for would-be homesteaders.
Her town of Curtis, population 801, has given away two residential lots in about four years. Hosick said she's hoping the new Web site will improve the homegrown efforts and attract a wider audience.
But the land grant could become wider. A national effort is again before the Senate as the New Homestead Act, modeled after the original signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862.
Introduced by Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the act's various bills propose, among other things, to extend loans for businesses and homeowners, tax credits, and even tuition reimbursement in an effort to repopulate and reinvigorate the nation's fading rural areas.
The act has been introduced in each of the past three congressional sessions but hasn't gained momentum.
A professor who has studied the Great Plains said the act is more symbolic and likely won't pass for several reasons, including the current budget deficit. But it will at least get people thinking about rural issues and will show them there's more to that part of the country then agriculture, said Frank Popper, a professor of land planning at Rutgers University and Princeton.
"Anything that draws national attention to it and its difficulties is important right there," said Popper, who, with his wife in the mid-1980s theorized that the Great Plains was oversettled and the area should be depopulated and returned to a full-fledged grassland with roaming buffalo.
The prospect of homesteading worked for Bayless, 38, his wife, Kimberley, 35, and their four children who range in age from 4 to 13. They visited the central Kansas town of Ellsworth, population 2,300, and first were going to build on a plot of free land. But a year ago they ended up moving into an older home for one-third the price of their Las Vegas home.
Since the county began offering free land in August 2003, about a dozen families have moved into existing Ellsworth homes, said Anita Hoffhines, executive director with the Ellsworth County Economic Development office. Only two families decided to build out of an original 19 lots available, she said.
Benefits to new homeowners include free water and sewer hookups, low-cost loans and an annual free pass to a golf course, depending on which city people move to within the county.
About two dozen children have been added to the county's school district, each bringing $6,000 in annual education funding, Hoffhines said.
In Curtis, Neb., each incoming student brings in about $7,000 worth of state funding, Hosick said. That's one of the reasons the town wants to offer down payment assistance of $1,000 to new homeowners and an extra $500 for each child going to school. They're also working with local businesses to provide free groceries and a half-year's worth of utilities to newcomers.
The community-owned utility system provided all the light and water hookups and the phone company donated the land. Other Nebraska towns have formed corporations to acquire the land.
Kenesaw bought about 15 plots for about $110,000 total, which will be recouped in local taxes, said Mark Keiser, president of the Adams County Bank, which is overseeing the effort. A dozen lots have been claimed, and a handful of homes have been built, he said.
In Curtis, the town will focus on recruiting recent college graduates as well as older people who might want to move near family members, Hosick said.
"You never want too many of both," she said. "If someone wants to come here and put kids in our school system, that's the biggest bang for our buck."
The idea appears to be spreading.
Sheryl Hiatt, a business development field officer for Nebraska, said she has been contacted by several communities, including Central City, Seward and Loup City, wanting to start their own programs.
Loup City, which is about 45 miles from Grand Island and Kearney, is working on a plan to give away 12 lots in a brand-new subdivision, said Annette Gallaway, town clerk.
The village of Elwood, Neb., about 170 miles west of Lincoln, should begin giving away about 15 lots by the end of the summer, said village attorney Todd Wilson. The village is ready to install sewers and water, for an investment of about $300,000 by the time the land is ready to be given away.
Wilson said he's already heard from people throughout Nebraska wanting one of the lots on the edge of the village of 800.
Free land isn't the only carrot being dangled.
Ord is offering low-cost leases to new companies wanting to move or set up shop in the town about 130 miles northwest of Lincoln. Zane Dexter, president of Cornerstone Manufacturing, said it was the long-term, low-cost lease that has kept his company going for its first year and a half.
"If it wouldn't have been for the low-cost lease I probably would have located it elsewhere," Dexter said of his company.
The townspeople are eager for new businesses, too. More than 100 people applied for Cornerstone's initial four jobs. There are nine employees now.
To Paul Bayless in Ellsworth, Kan., the attraction is low-cost living and knowing that his children will grow up in a safe, small-town environment.
"If you can handle the small-town atmosphere and not necessarily have everything you want readily available in town, it can be done," Bayless said.
And while Bayless and his family appreciate efforts to boost rural populations, they're cautious that too much revitalization will be a detriment in the end.
"We don't want everybody from big towns to move here, then it loses the charm it has now," Bayless said.
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On the Net:
Kansas Free Land: http://www.kansasfreeland.com
Elwood, Neb.: http://www.elwoodnebraska.com
Curtis, Neb.: http://www.curtis-ne.com
Nebraska Free Land, to be up next month: http://www.nebraskafreeland.comLincoln Journal Star/AP
