Tell me about your location - is it famous for anything? Does it hold any records?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

I’m close to Lebanon, NH, one of the 100 best small towns in America. Middling praise indeed!

I also stumbled across this Money Magazine’s 2007 Top Skinniest Counties with their BMIs. My parents just moved to Fort Collins; I’ll have to tell them they need to slim down. :wink:

1 Marin Corte Madera, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, Tiburon 24.14
2 Blaine Hailey 24.59
3 **La Plata ** Durango 24.65
4 **Teton ** Jackson 24.81
5 Garfield Glenwood Springs, Rifle 24.88
6 **San Francisco ** San Francisco 24.92
7 Boulder Boulder, Erie, Gunbarrel, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Superior 24.93
8 **Los Alamos ** Los Alamos 25.02
9 Summit Park City, Summit Park 25.16
10 Alexandria city Alexandria 25.44
11 **Sumner ** Gallatin, Hendersonville, Portland 25.50
12 **Santa Fe ** Santa Fe 25.51
13 **Gallatin ** Bozeman 25.52
14 Douglas Castle Pines, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Parker, Stonegate,The Pinery 25.55
15 Fairfax Annandale, Bailey’s Crossroads, Burke, Centreville, Chantilly, Dranesville, Dunn Loring, Fort Hunt, Franconia, Great Falls, Groveton, Herndon, Hunter Mill, Huntington, Hybla Valley, Idylwood, Jefferson, Lake Barcroft, Lincolnia, Lorton, McLean, Merrifield, Mount Vernon, Newington, North Springfield, Oakton, Reston, Rose Hill, Springfield, Sully, Tysons Corner, Vienna, West Springfield, Wolf Trap 25.56
16 DeKalb DeKalb, Sycamore 25.60
17 **Larimer ** Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor 25.63
18 Lincoln Ruidoso 25.66
19 Litchfield New Milford, Oakville 25.68
20 Cache Smithfield 25.69
21 Montgomery Aspen Hill, Bethesda, Burtonsville, Calverton, Chevy Chase, Cloverly, Colesville, Damascus, Fairland, Forest Glen, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Kemp Mill, Montgomery Village, North Bethesda, North Kensington, North Potomac, Olney, Potomac, Redland, Rockville, Rossmoor, Silver Spring, South Kensington, Takoma Park, Travilah, Wheaton-Glenmont, White Oak 25.72
22 **Arlington ** Arlington 25.72
23 Martin Hobe Sound, Jensen Beach, Palm City, Port Salerno 25.74
24 Jefferson Evergreen, Golden, Ken Caryl, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge 25.76
25 **Silver Bow ** Butte-Silver Bow 25.78

62

feppy, Natchez is also the location of Forks of the Road, which was supposedly the second most active slave market in the South, during the mid 19th century. I think there is a Civil Rights marker there, now. A lot of people can trace their ancestry to the Forks market.

Jackson was also the site of the “world’s first heart transplanted into man” in 1964.

See? Mississippi isn’t always last in everything. :wink:

63

Ithaca was also the home of US moviemaking during the silent film days. Then some upstart place in California where the sun shines more often than it does around here took over.

Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone lived here in the 1970’s.

64

I live in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, home to the Johnson Space Center , Andrea Yates and Lisa Nowak. Maybe I should consider moving. :dubious:

65

Actually, Loretto Chapel has the spiral staircase. And according to Wikipedia, the San Miguel Chapel is not in fact the oldest one in the US, but I’ve also heard it is.

State-wide, we’ve also got more government-concealed UFO crashes per capita than any other state, and a relatively famous hot air balloon festival race thingamabob.

In defense of my hometown, Philadelphia is also well known for cheese-laden greasy meat on a bun, really high crime rates, record-setting sports teams*, and terrifying, drunk, belligerent sports fans.**

*Most recently, my beloved Phils, who are the first ever MLB team to lose 10,000 games.
**You know, it’s possible that there’s a somewhat cyclical relationship between these last two items.

66

The boyhood home of John Muir is here. My uncle owns one of the adjoining properties. I got to roam the same areas he did. The whole area had lots of Scottish settlers.

Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet crossed from the Great Lakes watershed to the Mississippi watershed here, between The Fox and Wisconsin rivers.

Fort Winnebago was here. The Surgeon’s Quarters is what remains at the site. The cemetary is preserved a short way down the road. The Indian Agency house is at the end of the Portage canal.

Wisconsin Dells is within 29 miles, and all that implies. There is one of the two existing Muir main modules in Tommy Bartlet’s Exploratory. The other one is not on public display. You can enter the module. There were of course three, before re-entry and burn up.

There’s more but this is enough.

Two Rivers beat you by years. You guys think you can claim it because you put a cherry on the top. Ha.

67

shaking fist

Steal my joke, will you!

68

Birthplace of both the Titantic and DeLorean DMC12’s :slight_smile:

69

According to this, you might think we’re tops in meth…

from the House Science and Technology Committee

70

Can you explain the significance of Wisconsin Dells? Is it a shopping mall? A suburb known for lock-step conformity? A leprechaun preserve?

71

Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run here in Fayettville, NC.

SSG Schwartz

72

The valley in which I live is where the49ers first found reliable water after leaving Death Valley. The spot is called Indian Wells. The springs are still there and are the site of a micro brewery.

Indian Wells is at the foot of the Sierra Nevada range to the west and they entered the valley from the east. The distance they had to travel was about 20 miles. It took them 7 days.

Not exactly famous, but …

73

Right you are. It is situated at the top of a hill at the start of Liberty Road, which leads to (not surprisingly) Liberty, MS. The marker is across from an auto glass shop and behind a Jehovah Witness hall.

74

Wisconsin Dells a town based on tourism, that was originally resorts and the trips for the unique landscape. It used to be dead for 6 months a year, but with the indoor water parks and Ho Chunk casino nearby, it stays busy all year. Lake Delton is next to Wisconsin Dells and it all gets called the Dells. A hundred years ago Baraboo and the Devils Lake resorts were included when referencing the Dells. Devils Lake is a state park with high granite bluffs. Some of the resort buildings still remain for park use, but most are gone.

General attractions
http://www.dells.com/index3.html

Historical Society Bennett Material
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/hhbennett/index.asp

Pictures of the Dells rock formations taken by Bennett.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/hhbennett/dells.asp

This page has a picture of the Mir space module.

We haven’t any leprechauns, but Mount Horeb is infested with trolls. Visit the main street Trollway.

The International Crane Foundation is in Baraboo and breeds some of the rarest cranes from around the world. The ones they don’t breed they are consulted on.
http://www.savingcranes.org/about/history.cfm

75

Art Deco architecture. Virtually the entire city was wiped out in 1931 during an earthquake. There was a deliberate choice in the style to rebuild the city. Hastings (20km um, thataway) has fantastic ‘Spanish Mission’ buildings instead.

During the 80’s, there was a concerted effort to bring the Art Deco buildings back to their past glory after decades of neglect. It’s still ongoing and brings thousands of tourists each year to Art Deco festivals and daily walking tours. Yes, I’ve danced in the main street in a flapper costume, what’s your point?

Currently, there are efforts to have the City declared a world heritage site.

And, in the interests of full disclosure - Miami has a greater number of Art Deco Buildings, but they’re spread out over a much wider area.

76

Unfortunately, not my current location, but it was and will be again someday.

The Kentucky Derby winner “Spokane,” who holds an unbreakable record of some kind (because they changed the length of the track) was born there in 1886. Nothing particularly interesting has happened since. :wink:

77

Nonsense! The Two Rivers claim is based on a story by Mencken, a hoax that has beencompletely debunked! . The only hard evidence (a published newspaper ad) supports Ithaca’s claim.

Besides, Purity ice cream is the best! Followed by the Cornell University dairy bar, which is even better than the University of Wisconsin dairy bar (and I say that as a UW alum).

However, I will acknowledge that the UW-Madison Rathskellar on Lake Mendota is one of the best places for drinking beer. I know of no other college campus that has such a great beer joint.

78

Boo-hiss on Winterpark cheaters. Leadville is a thousand feet higher than the real town of Winterpark, and Alma is, what, 300 feet higher than Leadville?

79

Monterey!

Famous? Well, there’s Cannery Row & that Steinbeck dude.

Records? Coldest place in the US in July?

80

We have the most polluting power station in the industrialised world. Oddly, it doesn’t generate the tourism dollars that you’d think it would. Greenpeace break in (image 9) once in a while, but they don’t tend to spend up big on accommodation and sightseeing.

From the Wikipedia article: “[snip] … Hazelwood now produces nearly 17.0 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, which is over 5 % of Australia’s total carbon dioxide emissions, and 9 % of Australia’s total CO2 from electricity generation.” It’s awesome, and for all the wrong reasons.