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he’s very familiar with the breed. “We have quite a number of them and it seems to be burgeoning,” he said, citing Lasater and Sumpter as prime exhibits of the trend. The county is eager to appeal to such immigrants, who bring skills and jobs with them, McCarthy indicated.
Philip Burgess, president of the Center for the New West, a Denverbased think tank that’s researching the Long Eagle phenomenon, says the trend is being driven by several economic forces, including new techology, corporate downsizing, portable skil8 and a shift in lifestyle preferences away from urban traffic, crime, pollution and rush. Burgess, who coined the Lone Eagle label, says they include “consultants, freelance professionals, independent brokers, manufacturers reps, financial advisors, writers, analysts and others who live by their wits.”
Bill Gates of Rocky Ford, Colorado, is a classic Lone Eagle. In 1989, he left his computer engineering job in California’s Silicon Valley and moved first to Ft. Collins, Colorado, to begin publishing a bimonthly magazine for high-tech entrepreneurs. He produces his 80to-100-page magazine, Midnight Engineering, (circulation 30,000) entirely by himself—he’s editor, ad salesman, layout artist and publisher.
1 “I could do my business at the North Pole,” Gates said. “All I need is Fed Ex, a telephone, and power for the computer.” When he found he could buy a house in Rocky Ford for $7,000, he moved his business, wife and four kids to that small farming town, where he says he’s cut his cost of living in half and found better schools for his children.
“I looked at it and saw the future,” the 47 year-old Lone Eagle says of his move to Rocky Ford. “I can save money, plan for retirement, do any business I want and get the education I want for my kids. It’s not heaven, but there’s much more right with it than there is wrong.”
Savvy small towns are seeking to capitalize on the Lone Eagle trend. “You can’t go out and recruit Lone Eagles, but you can make your community attractive to them,” said Colleen Murphy of the Center for the New West.
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