Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: It is the town where Mickey Mantle played his first season of professional baseball in 1949, the hometown of one of the first monkeys to be sent into space, Miss Able, 1959. It is Independence, Kan., a town with a rich past and an uncertain future. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: And that's where we find our colleague Melissa Block today. She's on a road trip that is taking her around the country. She's going to communities large and small, asking how people's identity is shaped by where they live. We're calling the series Our Land. SIEGEL: In Independence, Melissa wondered what keeps a small town hopeful when many of its good jobs are gone. MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE: If you're in Kansas on a Saturday night in January, you can bet you'll find some basketball. UNIDENTIFIED CHEERLEADERS: Offense, offense. BLOCK: Tonight we're watching community college ball. It's archrivals the Independence Pirates going up against the Coffeyville Ravens.
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