Bingo, the town I went to school in had barely 500 people when the school which had taken over for two other closed schools kids. It’s even less now. My grade was the largest at 32 kids too. There were former “towns” dotted all over from the rush west where train tracks used to be. All gone now and just somewhere used for cow shelter in the winter. These towns were simply stops for railroad cars to result water on the route west. Once that wasn’t needed the slow march to 0 began. My nearest non family member was over 7 miles away. There is a lot of interior USA that is really sparsely populated and is really just returning to pre colonial eras of mainly giant farmland or grazing pastures.