# The smallest town you have seen a hooker in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784 "2019-05-10T15:58:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/21 "2019-05-10T22:52:41Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Barstow, CA (population 22,639 in 2010) is the smallest place I’ve been propositioned. I was refilling my water jugs outside a grocery store before heading out into the desert on a camping trip. It was only about 9 am. Didn’t ask for a price quote. > It makes sense, as there are a lot of truck stops in Barstow as that is where I-40 splits off from I-15. Barstow is also the nearest town to Ft. Irwin IIRC and from experience I know military guys at the end of a training rotation are up for just about anything. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/22 "2019-05-11T00:56:02Z")
I’ve been through Monticello, IA a few times. “Small town Iowa” is a thinly disguised euphemism for “meth problem”, and it’s not all that far from the prison in Anamosa, so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/23 "2019-05-11T01:47:13Z")
Stone Park, Illinois is a little subrub of Chicago with barely 5000 citizens. Streetwalkers are pretty obvious while driving the main drag of Mannheim. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/24 "2019-05-11T01:53:26Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve been through Monticello, IA a few times. “Small town Iowa” is a thinly disguised euphemism for “meth problem”, and it’s not all that far from the prison in Anamosa, so who knows? Meth in Iowa? Captain Kirk came from there. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/25 "2019-05-11T05:50:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Meth in Iowa? > Captain Kirk came from there. :dubious: And specifically, the town of Riverside, which really does exist and is a few miles south of Iowa City. A vacant lot has a sign in it; I’ve been there. Truthfully, the only time I’ve seen people out in public that I KNEW were prostitutes were in Omaha when I was there many years ago. Long story why I was there and why we drove through the area, but it was during the winter and they were still scantily dressed, and most of them were probably transvestite men. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/26 "2019-05-11T06:26:25Z")
One time I was in a small town in Wyoming where the biggest building there was the chain hotel that was two stories tall. Getting a room for the night during a road trip despite it being 1AM when I checked in I saw two women in heavy make-up and flashy clothes both sitting in the lobby next to a pay phone. Eventually the pay phone rang, one of the women answered it, said a few things, then immediately hung up the phone and got into an elevator nearby to go to the second floor. The other woman stood there until she too got a phone call from the pay phone and the same thing happened. Definitely something was up there. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/27 "2019-05-11T10:20:00Z")
^What, you’ve never called for room service? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/28 "2019-05-11T22:22:06Z")
Tossup between Leesville, LA (Ft. Polk), and Junction City, KS (Ft. Riley). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/29 "2019-05-11T22:29:49Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > Stone Park, Illinois is a little subrub of Chicago with barely 5000 citizens. Streetwalkers are pretty obvious while driving the main drag of Mannheim. This was the town where a group of nuns sued successfully to stop a strip club from opening next to their convent. > **[Stone Park, Illinois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Park,_Illinois)** > > Stone Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,576 at the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1939, the town was named for insurance magnate Clement Stone, who bought most of the land when it was still corn fields. > Stone Park is located at 41°54′16″N 87°52′50″W / 41.90444°N 87.88056°W / 41.90444; -87.88056 (41.904330, -87.880486). > According to the 2010 census, Stone Park has a total area of 0.34 square miles (0.88 km2), all land. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/30 "2019-05-11T22:33:15Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I took an Amtrak from DC to Glacier National Park. All of the stops from North Dakota to East Glacier, MT were in little towns, some of them with populations under 2,000. Within a block of the train station at every single stop was a bar, a casino, and a motel/inn. I didn’t get off the train so I couldn’t verify one way or another that’s what they were, but I assumed at least some of the women hanging out in front of any of these places were prostitutes. > > Apparently prostitution arrests are exceptionally rare in North Dakota so maybe they were just trashy local women, but I’ve no doubt prostitution does exist there. Prostitution was a huge problem in that region during the oil boom. Now, not so much because the money and young men aren’t there so much now. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/31 "2019-05-12T00:01:03Z")
Not exactly what the OP is looking for but a boss I had back in the eighties went hunting way out in the woods of northern Michigan every deer season. He said the pimps in Detroit would get an RV, load it with hookers and take them up to service the hunters. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/32 "2019-05-12T01:45:10Z")
I’ve seen what very likely was the so called “lot lizard” working a big truck stop far way outside of any town. If you slapped the name of the nearest unincorporated township on the truckstop, the population was probably a couple hundred. The transient client base though was pretty big. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/33 "2019-05-12T03:06:01Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > My city, [Chillicothe, Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillicothe,_Ohio) has about 21,000 residents. We have a serious opioid problem, and dozens of hookers, none of whom I know. I was going to cite another example, but I’ll just say that all along the Ohio River, anywhere with a bridge across the river to another state has a serious opioid problem and hookers. Probably anywhere on the border of any two states, or for that matter, any town with doctors who are too easy with prescribing painkillers. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/34 "2019-05-12T15:14:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And specifically, the town of Riverside, which really does exist and is a few miles south of Iowa City. A vacant lot has a sign in it; I’ve been there. 😕 So what’s the sign say, “Future home of James T. Kirk”? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/35 "2019-05-12T19:47:49Z")
My Dad grew up in Greenbush, Wisconsin in the 1930’s. He used to joke that the place was so small the town hooker was still a virgin. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/36 "2019-05-13T14:59:57Z")
My hometown had about 3000 people. I’m pretty sure I saw a young lady being picked up for commerce there a few years ago. Also, at least one classmate of mine was known for \*turning tricks. At least in her case, I knew she was an addict, and that’s an all too common story. \*But not when she was a classmate–the addiction took her over many years later. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/37 "2019-05-13T15:28:35Z")
Define “hooker.” If you mean “streetwalker,” I’ve never seen one in a city smaller than, oh, 100k or so. If you mean “person who will exchange sex for money or drugs,” my town of 600 is apparently lousy with them, because meth. Not that I would know directly (seriously). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/38 "2019-05-13T16:34:18Z")
I was propositioned in a very small ‘hut village’ in Haiti a few miles outside Port-A-Prince. Perhaps 100 dwellings. While I don’t think it was her main profession as they don’t get many visitors - and visitors don’t usually walk freely around as I did, but stay with escorts, I don’t believe I was the only one she has tried to sell herself to either. So perhaps hooker as a freelancer side job. I also get the feeling she was into voodoo (as that is a common religion there) and that was part of her practice to help bind her soul to people more fortunate by sex. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/39 "2019-05-13T18:38:41Z")
I was driving through Cornelia Georgia (pop. 4000) last year and saw what I believed to be the town hooker. She was a tall, overweight black woman in her 30’s, wore a tube top with no bra, spandex pants to show she got back, big dangly earrings and matching necklace, hotel neon spiked heels, black lipstick, and carried around a big floppy purse, every bit the stereotype. That area of town was an otherwise deserted train depo. Could have been a Norman Rockwell painting. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784/40 "2019-05-13T19:35:28Z")
The nearest town to me has a population of 10,000. Call me naïve, but I can’t recall ever seeing anyone who might be a streetwalker here. If she was wearing the stereotypical show-off, easy-off clothes, she’d stand out so glaringly that she’d probably make the front page news (not much else to write about, y’know?) To blend in, she’d have to wear a flannel shirt, overalls, dairy boots, and a cowboy hat. But if she blended in, how would she attract business? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-smallest-town-you-have-seen-a-hooker-in/833784.md?page=3)