Seattle Times Monday, April 09, 2001, 12:00 a.m. Pacific Extreme USA: curiosities from the census by Carl Weiser

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Even if residents don't know it, census 2000 has put Slope County, N.D., on the map.

Same with Loving County, Texas. And the Steubenville, Ohio-Weirton, W.Va., metropolitan area.

Those counties and metropolitan areas, along with dozens of others, represent the extremes in America: the whitest county (Slope) or the emptiest (Loving) or the most quickly shrinking metro area (Steubenville).

For some locals, the distinction is a point of pride. When Las Vegas was revealed to be the fastest-growing metro area in the nation - moving from 63rd to 32nd - Mayor Oscar Goodman predicted, "Ten years from now we'll be No. 1."

But Dean Braun, director of the Steubenville Convention and Visitors Center, was less eager to talk about the fact that a nation-leading 7.4 percent of the area's population disappeared from 1990 to 2000.

He offered helpfully, however, that Steubenville is known as the City of Murals for its 25 giant wall-sized artworks.

Slope County, N.D., doesn't mention on its World Wide Web page that it is the whitest county in the nation; all but three of its 767 residents listed themselves as white. Its Web page prefers to tout the colors of the Badlands and prairie - as well as its restaurants.

"We have two towns in our county, and they each have a fabulous dining establishment. Come and try for yourself!!!" the Web page reads.

And Loving County, Texas, is happy to be the least populous county in the nation, with 67 people spread over 673 square miles. While it has no hospitals, groceries or pharmacies, it also has "no lawyers' offices," County Clerk Beverly Hanson said.

"We have less crime. We know who needs help," she said. "We know everyone."

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001