# What's your town famous for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285 "2004-10-20T21:33:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/41 "2004-10-21T01:01:58Z")
:eek: Alexander J. Cartwright, Joseph Campbell and Martha Root are buried here. :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/42 "2004-10-21T01:22:53Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > My town supplied the stone for the Chicago Water tower which survived the fire. Argonne national laboratory is also here. That’s probably it. A friend of mine from Lemont also said something along the lines of Al Capone having hung out there a lot back in the day. My hometown had the highest suicide rate per capita of any town in the US in the late 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/43 "2004-10-21T01:34:11Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I live near Nashville, home of country music, and near Murfreesboro, home of the civil war [Battle of Murfreesboro](http://www.aotc.net/Murfreesboro.htm). Also I remember hearing that one of Robert Altman’s movies is set around here, although I can’t quite remember the title. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/44 "2004-10-21T01:40:36Z")
Um, the Astrodome? NASA? ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/45 "2004-10-21T01:53:38Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > The Summer Olympics in 2000, I suppose. Not to mention, the grave and house site of the women who inspired Charles Dickens’ character Miss Haversham in Great Expectations (in Newtown) and the grave site of the woman after whom Granny Smith apples were named (on the Northshore). There is a great book that I had when I lived in Sydney that includes all this fascinating little facts. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/46 "2004-10-21T01:57:40Z")
Where I currently live has the world’s largest peanut butter plant (Jif). My hometown might be known for a possibly crappy [movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368709/) in the near future, though only a tiny portion of it was actually filmed there. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/47 "2004-10-21T01:59:21Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Lots of boats and volcanoes. Not to mention birthplace of: Lucy Lawless, Sir Edmund Hilary and Rachael Hunter and once site of the Americas cup. (I live here now) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/48 "2004-10-21T02:09:43Z")
Buck Owens, et al. Nashville West. Oakies, as in _The Grapes of Wrath_. The butt of many comedian’s jokes. Cockroaches. And me. 🙂 Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/49 "2004-10-21T02:12:30Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Not to mention birthplace of: Lucy Lawless, Sir Edmund Hilary and Rachael Hunter and once site of the Americas cup. (I live here now) Also Sir Peter Blake and Bruce McLaren. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/50 "2004-10-21T02:17:35Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Also Sir Peter Blake and Bruce McLaren. Do non-NZers know who they are? ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/51 "2004-10-21T02:20:52Z")
Maybe not Sir Peter Blake (though surely some have), but anyone who has heard of Formula One has heard of Bruce McLaren. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/52 "2004-10-21T02:24:29Z")
omaha, nebraska birthplace of president gerald ford and marlon brando (four blocks apart on the same street) home of omaha steaks international shipping fine aged beef anywhere in the world home of the college world series home of warren buffet second only to bill gates as the wealthiest man in the country location of father flanagan’s boy’s town the rueben sandwich was invented in the coffee shop of the blackstone hotel on 36th and farnam street the henry doorly zoo has the largest indoor rain forest in the world ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/53 "2004-10-21T02:25:45Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Do non-NZers know who they are? Yes, to the first. He’s a sailor I believe. No to the second. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/54 "2004-10-21T02:32:01Z")
My town (not where I’m living currently, but my hometown just down the road) is where [“Snowflake” Bentley](http://snowflakebentley.com/), the first person to photograph a snowflake, lived and worked. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/55 "2004-10-21T02:32:12Z")
I was born in the city that had the largest [_un_reinforced](http://www.acbm.us/peter.htm) concrete structure in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/56 "2004-10-21T02:41:09Z")
My hometown, Rockville MD, is the subject of the REM song (their opinion is right on the money), and is the burial place of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Their graves are just a few miles from Chestnut Lodge, the sanitarium where they used to dry out. Judy Garland also dried out there in her day. My Undergrad days were in Greensboro NC. Named after General Green who fought the Battle of Guilford Courthouse there during the Revolution. Now I live in Fort Myers, FL where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford spent their winters. Their combined estate is managed by the city and is one of the main (i.e. only) tourist attractions. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/57 "2004-10-21T02:52:06Z")
Unfortunately, the only thing most people can name about us is the flap over the Confederate flag. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/58 "2004-10-21T02:58:56Z")
Flannery O’Connor was not born here but spent most of her life here. Oliver Hardy also was not born here but grew up here, earning a living as a day laborer, singer and projectionist for the first movie theater in town. The novel/movie _Paris Trout_ was based on a series of murders that occurred here (the bullet holes are still there). We were the capitol of Georgia from 1803-1868. We are the site of what was once the largest mental hospital on Earth. It is mostly abandoned now and has some incredible ruins. The flag of the Republic of Texas was born here. We are the hometown of Julia Roberts’s character in _Pretty Woman_. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/59 "2004-10-21T03:59:58Z")
[Chambersburg, PA](http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0811271.html) was, I believe the _only_ northern town to be burned by Confederate troops during the Civil War. I believe they passed through the town twice, but burned it when they passed through the second time on their way to Gettysburg. The town also served as John Brown’s headquarters in 1859. Also, General George Washington himself spent the night here on his way to somewhere of greater interest/importance. The hotel he stayed in survived the Confederate’s Conflagration, I believe, but burned down in the past 10-15 years under possibly suspicious circumstances, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285/60 "2004-10-21T05:01:55Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > A friend of mine from Lemont also said something along the lines of Al Capone having hung out there a lot back in the day. > > My hometown had the highest suicide rate per capita of any town in the US in the late 70’s. That’s certainly possibly. From what I gather from some of my great uncle’s newspaper articles, Lemont was quite a crazy town back in the day. Gunfights and hookers and all sorts of illicit activites. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-town-famous-for/270285.md?page=4)