This CNN tidbit lists a bunch of small American towns which one presumes are particularly scenic or special. What are your favourite small towns and why? What do you think of this list?
It was more than 200 years ago, in 1766, that Cape Island’s development as a place where many resort for their health and pleasure began. The visitors came first from Philadelphia, by horse-drawn wagons, stagecoaches, sloops and schooners. They were housed in very rustic public houses, taverns, and resident homes. At the turn of the century, advertisement in the Philadelphia papers described the beautiful situation of Cape May, the sea-bathing, and the fish, oysters and crabs to eat and enjoy!
Beautiful Seaside town. One of the oldest vacation places in the USA. Usually rates very high on best small towns and best places to visit.
Red Bank & Princeton are also very nice and Morristown right behind those.
Small college towns can be quite nice.
Lewes, Delaware. It’s “The first town in the first state.” Cute little beach town right at Cape Henlopen. It’s the next town north of Rehoboth Beach. You can catch a ferry from here to Cape May, NJ. Calm beach on the bay side, Atlantic Ocean beach on the other side.
Shelburne Falls. It’s a one-light town in Northwestern Massachusetts. They have a candlepin bowling alley.
Littleton, NH. Right on the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, west of the White Mountains. Great little diner there, and a cool old-timey candy store.
FWIW the article includes:
McCarthy.Alaska
Volcano, Hawaii
Julian, California
Friday Harbor, Washington
Moab, Utah
Whitefish, Montana
Taos, New Mexico
Marfa, Texas
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Mackinac island Village, Michigan
Metropolis, Illinois
Beaufort, South Carolina
New Bern, North Carolina
Satanic Lake, New York
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Anyone been to more than five of these?
I think you meant Saranac Lake? A very nice area.
I don’t know anything else on this list.
I like Port Townsend, Washington. Victorian town on the shores of Puget Sound. The leaders of the town had the foresight back in the 70’s to make rules that prevented large housing developments and urban sprawl. A lot of this had to do with the availability of resources on the peninsula like water. Plus the cost of putting in a facilities to handle sewage would have been very expensive. The residents of the town have a special sense of community and are proud of what they have. My wife and I are planning to move someplace with a slower pace of life, PT is on our short list.
The article in the OP calls out Friday Harbor, a town on one of the San Juan Islands. Having to rely on Washington State ferries to get anywhere should have been enough to keep that town off the list. A friend and his wife visited there for a couple days last month. They showed up at 5pm on a Monday to catch a ferry back to the mainland. There was only one ferry running that route that day due to a lack of ferry workers, they didn’t catch a ferry till 11 am Tuesday morning. The spent the night at the ferry dock with a few hundred other folks trying to get off the island.
Funny, I don’t think of Taos (NM) as a “small town” although that’s technically its category. It’s a ski resort in the winter and an artists’ colony otherwise, and the cost of living there is sky-high. I wonder how many others on this list are boutique towns like that?
I’ve only been to one. Friday Harbor. It’s okay, but nothing truly special. (The San Juan islands in general are fantastic and beautiful.) I agree with racer72, Port Townsend is much better.
I nominate Astoria, Oregon, famous for The Goonies. Quite a lot of Victorian houses which seem to have a genuine-people quality, not the twee-ness you get when a town has been gentrified. Astoria is situated where the mighty Columbia River flows into the Pacific, or sometimes the other way around depending on tides, and just across the river from Cape Disappointment, named for the famous treacherousness of the waters. (They helicopter in crack ship pilots to steer the big container ships through.)
I’ve got Moab, Taos, Beaufort, New Bern, and Gloucester. And we didn’t stop there on the hike, but went past Saranac Lake on a 3 day backpack trip.
Interesting topic. FWIW I posted a poll over in the Polls Only: No Discussion thread.
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Yes, but I’m blaming autocorrect. I have not travelled to that many states as a Canadian, but by chance have been to two towns listed. So I figure actual Americans might have visited more. Though the list seems to have gone for geographic breadth so probably few people have visited as many as five. The poll might say more.
In my experience these lists are like travel guides recommending restaurants in your home town. When you read what they say you might know a lot of places way better, even though there is nothing wrong with the recommendations which are good or very good, just not always superlative. They define a small town as under 50,000 which is arbitrary, I guess, but fairly high.
I’ve been to Saranac Lake, Gloucester, Moab, Whitefish, and I think I’ve been to Mackinac Island Village but was too young to remember. Of those, I’d certainly consider living in Whitefish and Gloucester. Moab is in a wonderful place put there’s a busy main drag with heavy trucking constantly, dust, and heat. Saranac Lake is a cute place, might be fun for a while. Gloucester is a suburb of Boston, not really a small town on its own.
I lived in Port Townsend for 7 years and it’s almost equally isolated . Sure, you can drive half an hour to get to a similar-sized town like Sequim or an hour to get to a charmless shopping town like Siverdale. But Tacoma or Seattle or Lynwood or any other place with decent amenities is multiple hours of driving, ferries, and unreliable bridges away. Port Townsend does have a sense of community but you better learn a Bluegrass instrument or own a wooden boat if you want to be accepted. I didn’t hate living there but it wasn’t the great place it seemed to be when I first visited.
There are a batch of these lists. One town near me won a place on “The 100 Best Small Towns In America” a few years back; I don’t remember who was compiling the list.
They were only just barely large enough to be in the running. Towns of slighly less population weren’t even considered.
ETA: a creamery not too far from that town just won “Best Icecream in the (contiguous) USA.” (Unfortunately, after our Wandering Thule @penultima_thule had already wandered elsewhere.) I’ll have to try some, after the fuss and the tour buses have died down. But as the compilers apparently hit 48 states in 48 days there must have been quite a lot of ice cream places where they didn’t do any tastings.
My home town!
It is often showing up on these type of articles, I was kind of expecting it on this one.
Small town, less that 10k people, beautiful area. If you are an outdoors type person it is paradise. The Columbia River is wide here, many islands, endless water sports, boating, canoeing, fishing, duck hunting. Coast Range mountains and hiking oportunities. There are miles, and miles of easilly accessed Pacific Ocean beaches. Crabbing, razor clam digging, and just walking almost alone on a beach that is all yours. Even if you are old and not up to the exersize you can still just drive onto the beach in your car. The only time that you are not spending harvesting the many resources is when you have to stay home and do canning or freezing. Impossible to starve here.
There is a thriving arts community going on in town. A Sunday Market during the summer. The historic Liberty Theater has been rejuvinated. Several museums. And a real community to get involved in, if you want.
Liberty Theatre | 1920s Vaudeville & Motion Picture Palace in Astoria, Oregon (libertyastoria.org)
A nice river walk for miles. Two lane roads into and out of town. In a county of about 1100 square miles with only 38,000 people in it. Mostly trees.
Some people have not liked it. The Corps of Discovery, also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, spent a rainy winter here until their clothes were rotting off and could not wait to leave and drag their ass back to East St. Louis Missouri. So your experence may vary.
The most recent news has been about the cougar on Haystack Rock eating the nesting birds. Wildlife abounds, local deer in town have even learned to use the pedestrian cross walks.
Cougar on Oregon’s Haystack Rock was likely searching for snacks, officials say - oregonlive.com
Never been there in person but Roslyn, Washington seems like a cute little town. (Northern Exposure was shot here, among other shows)
A friend has a vacation home in La Conner, WA (pop. 965). He pretty much thinks it’s heaven on earth.
I can vouch for McCarthy, AK. Very tiny tourist destination amidst some spectacular scenery and located next to the abandoned Kennecott Copper Mine at the headwaters of the Copper River. The river is home to the best salmon fishing in the state. Impossible to get to in winter without snowmachines, and a rough drive in summer, but worth the trip.
I’m a fan of Bandon, OR. Like most coastal towns, it’s a tourist stop, but they’ve got the best fish & chips shop anywhere on the coast. We made a point of driving there every year just for the restaurants. The coastline there is stunning and accessible. I miss going there.
Roslyn is just part of the larger WDC sprawl. Lots of office buildings and State Department offices. The Iwo Jima memorial is there and access to the Metro is very easy.