While it was being built, Gypsy’s Shiny Diner was cited for being “too shiny”. The compromise was to have 3 foot (1 meter) plantings in front of it.
I know, right? 
And I thought gum was about as gross as it could get… I yield in pensive defeat.
Excellent choice!! Embarrassingly, I know about this one due to family history. My grandparents owned a sizeable wheat farm/sheep ranch north of Havre, and it was entirely due to their illegally-distilled liquor transported from Medicine Hat into Havre. When the depression hit, they used their ill-gotten gains to buy up their thousands of acres of land. I lived there for a couple of years in the early 80s and still have family in the area. Thanks for the reminder, as it had all slipped my mind!
You are ever welcome. 
People should know.
There’s a little town in the Sierra Nevada foothills called Cool, CA. There is apparently no clear historical record as to the origin of the town’s name. Some claim it was named by the beatnik Todd Hausman, but I doubt that story.
Every Valentine’s Day, the town of Kissimmee, FL has a huge influx of mailings. The name is actually pronounced Kiss IM mee but apparently people think it’s cute to have the postmark that looks kind of like “kiss me”.
Seattle also has one of these nasty gum alleys. The Seattle version is right by Pike Place Market. Gum Wall - Wikipedia
Again, Seattle also has a similar underground city. However, it became underground because the city built up and raised the road grade. It also was used for speakeasies, opium dens and other cool activities. It’s found below a few blocks in Pioneer Square. Seattle Underground - Wikipedia
Reversing a word or name to come up with a town name is actually not that uncommon. There’s even a Wiki-list for them: List of geographic anagrams and ananyms, compiled by yours truly. And that’s probably not all of them. There’s other candidates, but those are the ones I could find a reference for.
(Ananym is an obscure word meaning a word or name spelled backwards. I hadn’t heard of it until I found the Wikipage on them, but since that word was already in use on Wikipedia, I went with it.)
Sacramento has a similar underground. The city was built on low lying land next to the river that was prone to flooding, a rather bad location for a city but a good spot for selling supplies to gold miners sailing up the river. Later when city leaders realized the constant flooding was a problem they raised the street level, so the former first floors became the basements.
I once visited the town of Accident, Maryland. On purpose. The residents are known as “Accidentals.”
Somewhat nearby me is Parole, Maryland. I don’t know if the residents there are known as “Parolees,” but they should be.
There’s also a place named Boring in Maryland, although it’s much smaller than the town in Oregon with the same name. A few years ago, Boring OR became sister cities with Dull, Scotland. They later added Bland Shire in New South Wales to their “League of [del]Extraordinary[/del] Mundane Cities”.
Quick! Somebody immigrate to France and establish a town called Blasé
Santa, Rosa, California. Back in the 80s there was a woman there named Pepper. She was the official town character. I met her a number of times on the bus, and she accused a friend of mine of having parents who were lizards.
One of the ways she got around town was to walk up to a car stopped at a stop light, get in, and ask to be be taken somewhere. It happened to a classmate’s wife. I asked “What did she do?” He replied, “She didn’t know what else to do, so she drove her.”
Fun times. Sadly, she’s gone now, but I’m glad she got a good send off. She deserved it.
The website Roadside America is a great place to find these sorts of oddball landmarks.
Sacramento has a memorial to Senator Capitol Kitty, a stray cat who lived on the capitol grounds from 1991 to 2004 according to the dates on the memorial.
Just got back from Hot Springs yesterday, visiting relatives. Said relatives decided to retire there several years ago and bought a very old house. Rumors were it had belonged to a Chicago crime family who built it with cash (as in stacks of bills) in the '40s. When they remodeled it, the contractor found the front walls facing the street were unusually thick. Turns out the entire front of the house was interleaved concrete and steel layers. It wasn’t just bulletproof, it was high-caliber rifle proof.
Another odd Hot Springs fact I learned while there. There’s a small river running thru town, and it is partially routed through an underground tunnel. The german restaurant Steinhaus has a basement dining area for which one wall is actually the outside of the tunnel. According to the waitstaff, there is a flowing river just six inches away from the booths on one side. I though that was weird.
Disclaimer: Just hearsay from waiters – don’t know if it’s really true.
Washington Arkansas was the temporary capital of Arkansas during the civil war. Little Rock was under military occupation and the capital had to be relocated.
James Black’s blacksmith shop is located in Washington and it’s where the first Bowie knife was made.
They have tours of historic Washington. My 4th grade class went there and had a great time.
If being purely vanilla qualified as strange, Cary would win hands down. They have legions of city ordinances forbidding any building from standing out in appearance. McDonalds can’t show the golden arches because the gold is considered too bright.
In my home town of Castleford we have the honour of world renowned Sculptor and artist Henry Moore as its most famous son. Naturally his home and birthplace have been suitably marked
What might be less well known is that patch of ground had a block of terrace housing on it, but it made the corner quite tight for our local garbage vehicles to reverse around it - so in keeping with such an honour the lot was demolished, after all we have world renowned individuals all over Castleford - not