Whilst passing the time in Topeka, Kansas last evening, I went and wandered around downtown. (I should have listened to the desk clerk. “There’s nothing there,” she said. “Everybody beats feet at five.” She was right. Even Subway closed after the lunch rush. But I like scoping out towns, and now I know.)
Anyway, I saw a number of historical markers related to Brown v. Board of Education. Now, OK, yes, it was a historical decision in this nation, and a good one. But does Topeka really want to make a tourist attraction of being a place where the city had to be sued to allow black children to attend their neighborhood school? Apparently so. Well, at least I didn’t see any signs pointing me to Westboro.
It started me thinking, though. There must be many places associated with historical event(s) of mixed meanings. Cities that now declare proudly that they did something sort of bad, out of which came something good.
I’d be interested in your candidates, preferably somewhere you’ve been or lived.
When many people think of Oklahoma City (if they think of it at all), the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building may be the first thing that comes to mind. Oklahoma City has built a beautiful and dignified memorial, and tourists flock there.
It’s kind of sad when the thing a town is best known for is something like this.
When the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, filmed in Monroeville, Alabama, came out, the good people were furious, humiliated, incensed. They just wanted it all to go away. Now, all these years later, the whole of downtown Monroeville is practically a memorial to Mockingbird.
As Dylan sang; “The times they are a changin’.”
I would certainly think Amityville would qualify, as probably Centralia, Pennsylvania should, since it’s the place that the movie Silent Hill was inspired by.
Johnstown Flood, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Mt. Meadows Massacre, Mt. St. Helens, Waco, Chalome, Salt Lake City, Jonestown, Leavenworth to name a couple off the top of my head.
Gary, Indiana!
What a wonderful name,
Named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame.
Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say,
Trips along softly on the tongue this way–
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
Let me say it once again.
Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
That’s the town that “knew me when.”
If you’d like to have a logical explanation
How I happened on this elegant syncopation,
I will say without a moment of hesitation
There is just one place
That can light my face.
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but–
Gary, Indiana,
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
My home sweet home.
Port Arthur in Tasmania had been a known tourist destination for many years with the ruins of an old penal colony established back when Tassie was still called Van Diemen’s Land. It’s housed on a beautiful peninsula and the ghosts of prisoners past still seem to haunt the decrepit buildings.
Unfortunately, Port Arthur came into international fame when a lone gunman went troppo one sunny Sunday afternoonin 1996 and decided to kill some folks. After his spree, thirty-five people lay dead, with many more injured.
Now when Port Arthur is mentioned, it’s rarely for its historical value or for its local beauty…it’s become associated with the most terrible massacre that ever had the misfortune to occur in Australia.
Over here there are lots of places create have emotive reactions, and can be used as a substitute for an explanation - e.g. “A Dunblane situation”.
Lockerbie. (Terrorist downing of 747 onto town)
Hungerford. (Marketplace massacre by gun club member.)
Dunblane. (School massacre by gun club member.)
Soham. (Disappearance and murder of two schoolgirls.)
Mousehole. (Pron. “Mouzul”. Loss of a volunteer lifeboat with all hands.)
Camelford. (Release of Aluminium salts into water supply.)
Hillsborough. (Stadium disaster, 90+ people crushed to death in front of TV cameras.)