Savannah in the running for “Small Town Showcase” recognition from Missouri Humanities

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- An Andrew County community is in the running to potentially have it's history and culture featured in the spotlight.

Now going on it's fifth iteration, the Missouri Humanities' "Small Town Showcase" allows viewers to vote and have five Missouri towns display its culture, history and atmosphere through podcasts and short films. Savannah is one of 16 towns in the running for five nominations.

"Savannah is a community in Northwest Missouri that people may overlook because it's in a congressional district that is very big," Missouri Humanities Program Director Caitlin Yager said. "We've worked with towns up Northwest Missouri before like Albany and it really started to open our eyes to the ongoing development in that area. We've seen a lot of growth in Downtown businesses, the museums and main streets to show it's not just a desirable place to visit, but also to live or start a business."

In the past, the criteria for a town to be featured was was having a maximum population size of 10,000 people or less. However, with 2026 marking the United States' 250th anniversary, the limit for the population was increased to 25,000 people.

"For this particular season, we are in the semi-quincentennial year being 2026, celebrating 250 years since the creation of the Declaration of Independence. We decided to expand the population size for towns seeking to apply because of the special year," Yager said. "It will still showcase smaller communities in Missouri compared to college towns or bigger cities in the state. We're hoping to spotlight the small town stories and communities in Missouri who helped Missouri's cultural heritage and overall story contribute to 250 years of American history."

While the idea of possibly expanding or modifying the format of "Small Town Showcase" has been discussed, the current success and flow of the series is something Missouri Humanities wants to remain consistent.

"I wouldn't say expansion is anything necessarily (planned) in the future. We've kind of hit a really good rhythm of having five communities each year, which produces five short films and five episodes of a podcast," Yager said. "We considered doing a micro version of Small Town Showcase where we focus on neighborhood river towns or a particular story instead of a whole town in general."

"There's many directions we can go. Right now, working with each of these communities is the priority. We're hoping people maintain their interest and keep wanting to tell their stories," Yager said.

To listen to past towns featured and vote on the current group of towns up for nomination visit mohumanities.org/small-town-showcase.