Small Iowa towns struggle to stay alive as people move away and others do not move in to replace them. Humeston, Iowa, with just shy of 500 people, is one of those towns.

Photos and video by Emily Carey and Austin Hronich, editing by Emily Carey for IowaWatch.

This report is the result of an IowaWatch Simpson College Journalism Project involving student journalists in Simpson’s spring 2019 journalism seminar.

Reporters for the project were:
- Randy Paulson
- Zoe Seiler
- Emily Carey
- Austin Hronich
- Taylor Bates
- Dustin Teays
The journalists worked on this story starting in January 2019 with Lyle Muller of IowaWatch and Mark Siebert, Simpson assistant professor of multimedia communication.