Category: Retreat Locales

South Dakota: Population: 754,800. Population Density: 9.78 per square mile (Rank 16 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 77,100 square miles (rank 16 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $618/yr. (rank 46 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $380/yr. (rank 42 of 50. ) Crime Safety Ranking: 4 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 69%. Per capita income: $25,958 (rank 34 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 12 of 50. Plusses: Very low population density and crime rate! A low “total tax burden” of 8.9%. Low car insurance rates. Minuses: Cold winters and a short growing …

I appreciate the link on Captain Dave’s site. I have read your book [Patriots ] ’till the pages are falling out. I have been visiting your blog every day since it was first mentioned on Captain Dave’s. I just wanted to give you a quick A1 “Attaboy” on your advertisers. I have used JRH Enterprises starting in the mid-late 90’s when he was still located in Jacksonville Florida, and he has ALWAYS been a source of good information, honesty, and good deals. If he does not have it he can tell you who does. Bruce Hemming (Buckshot’s) has been a …

Oregon: Population: 3.4 million. Population Density: 35 per square mile (Rank 9 of JWR’s top 19 states) (The highest density is in the northwest part of the state. It is much lower elsewhere, particular eastern 2/3rds of the state.) Area: 97,000 square miles (rank 10 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $704/yr. (rank 35 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $343/yr. (rank 47 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 18 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 65%. Per capita income: $27,660 (rank 25 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 10 of 50 (tied with Washington). Plusses: No …

Oklahoma: Population: 3.4 million. Population Density: 48.5 per square mile (Rank 6 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 70,000 square miles (rank 18 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $736/yr. (rank 26 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $612/yr. (rank 5 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 33 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 80%. Per capita income: $23,650 (rank 42 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 23 of 50. Plusses: Minimally regulated home schooling. Minuses: Fairly high population density (by western U.S. standards.) Fairly high crime rate. Tornado prone (ranked #3 out of top 20 States) …

North Dakota: Population: 642,200. Population Density: 9 per square mile (Rank 17 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 70,700 square miles (rank 17 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $601/yr. (rank 49 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $426/yr. (rank 33 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 2 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 61%. Per capita income: $24,708 (rank 38 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 6 of 50. Plusses: very low population density. Extremely low crime rate. Extremely low car insurance rates. With the decline in family farming, the state has actually de-populated, leaving real …

Mr. Rawles – I appreciate your web site and read it daily. This is in response to “Mo” in West Virginia: I wondered if you have read Mr. Joel Skousen’s book Strategic Relocation. He tends to feel there are areas of the south east that could be viable areas during a crisis . My choice would be central Idaho, but for complex reasons, I will stay in small town western North Carolina and try to prepare an adequate blast shelter. Water is plentiful here and the weather is rarely extreme. (Mr. Skousen also wrote an excellent book on survival shelters.) …

New Mexico: Population: 1.8 million. Population Density: 14.8 per square mile (Rank 15 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 121,593 square miles (rank 5 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $828/yr. (rank 14 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $450/yr. (rank 27 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 44 of 50. Per capita income: $21,931 (rank 48 of 50). Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 87%. ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 30 of 50. Plusses: Low population density. Minimal gun laws. People in New Mexico’s rural areas are already highly self-sufficient, out of economic necessity. Minuses: Proximity to Mexican border. …

Mr. Rawles, I’m a huge fan of your work, and was pleasantly surprised to come across Survivalblog during the course of my cyber-travels. It has become my new source for survival info. I particularly enjoy your state-by-state retreat potential evaluations. As a lifelong resident of the east coast, and an eight year resident of Virginia, I’m kind of geographically anchored to this section of the country. My family’s here, too. Consequently, I’m rather limited in terms of my choice of retreat locations. I will be graduating from law school (God willing) in May 2006, and hope to do real estate …

Nevada: Population: 2 million. Population Density: 18 per square mile (Rank 13 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 110,561 square miles (rank 7 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $937/yr. (rank 7 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $479/yr. (rank 21 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 49 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 76%. Per capita income: $29,506 (15 rank of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 25 of 50. Comments: One editor listed in the acknowledgements stubbornly insists that my ranking below is unfair to parts of Nevada. Nevada is really “a tale of two states”: …

Nebraska: Population: 1.7 million. Population Density: 21.9 per square mile (Rank 12 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 77,355 square miles (rank 15 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $649/yr. (rank 42 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $499/yr. (rank 18 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 12 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 64%. Per capita income: $27,630 (rank 26 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 5 of 50. Plusses: Low crime rate. Minuses: Tornado prone (ranked #4 out of top 20 States). Few local firewood sources. JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 11 of 19.

Montana: Population: 903,000. Population Density: 6.1 per square mile (Rank 18 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 147,000 square miles (rank 4 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $671/yr. (rank 38 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $451/yr. (rank 26 of 50). Crime Safety Ranking: 10 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 92%. Per capita income: $22,518 (rank 46 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 8 of 50. Montana Agriculture reference: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/narratives/MONTANA.htm Montana Crops: Potatoes, sugar beats, sorghum, alfalfa, grass hay, and grains. Plusses: Very low crime rate! Very low population density. Minimal gun laws. Good …

Louisiana: Population: 4.5 million. Population Density: 94.2 per square mile (Rank 2 of JWR’s top 19 states). Area: 47,751 square miles (rank 8 of 50). Average car insurance cost: $928/yr. (rank 30 of 50). Average home insurance cost: $721/yr. (rank 2 of 50) Crime Safety Ranking: 50 of 50. Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 94%. Per capita income: $23,090 (rank 45 of 50). ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 34 of 50. Plusses: Mild climate. Low property taxes. Firearms freedom. Minuses: Coastal Louisiana and +/- 50 miles inland is in the hurricane zone. Very high population density (by western …