Since the fur trade was also well past its zenith, the town snoozed in a rural backwater.

In the past 50 years, it has gone from an impoverished rural backwater to one of the richest countries in the world.

The province increasingly became a rural backwater, a pattern that continued until quite recent times.

Why is a man with his intelligence (not to mention verbal gifts) living so listlessly in a rural backwater?

Combs was a rural backwater where Dissenters met hiding from the authorities.

What confronts them is a rural backwater between humble and forgettable.

In 1959, however, the swamp was a rural backwater with no sewage treatment plants.

As the show begins, the couple is touring an old farm for sale in a rural backwater.

The village today is no longer a rural backwater with a large proportion of its population commuting to work elsewhere.

But the villagers say they're happy in their rural backwater.