Small Town News

Welcome to Decorah, Iowa!  Decorah is the seat of Winneshiek County and is located in Northeast Iowa.  The town is built on top of a nearly four mile wide crater created by a large meteorite about 470 million years ago.   The crater was filled in when an ancient seaway filled the crater with sediment and strange sea creatures that hardened into fossils.  One of the creatures is even named for the...

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Welcome to Seaside, Oregon!  The area was originally developed as a summer resort in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay.  The town was officially incorporated in 1899 as Seaside.   It continues to be a popular vacation site and offers all of the normal beach town activities.   The area was also the final westward stop of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 19th century.  In 1806, m...

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Welcome to Deming, New Mexico, "An Enterprise Community!"  Located 35 miles north of the US-Mexico border, Deming was founded 1881 and was a major hub on the second transcontinental railroad.  The Silver Spike was driven in Deming to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Rio Grande, Mexico and Pacific railroads.   In recent years, several movies had been filmed in Demi...

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Welcome to Clewiston, Florida, "America's Sweetest Town!"  Located on the southern bank of Lake Okeechobee, the area was once used as a fishing camp by the Seminole.  The first permanent settlement began around 1920 and quickly became known for its sport fishing.  Sugar plantations were established in the area and became the leading industry in Clewiston.  The Lake Okeechobee Scenic...

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Welcome to Rolla, Missouri,  "The Middle of Everywhere!"  Rolla was established in 1858 and is the seat of Phelps County.  The first house was built in the area in 1842, and the railroad followed about a decade later.  The town was the original terminus of the St. Louis-San Fransisco Railway, better known as the Frisco Line.  Rolla developed into a transportation and trading center, and...

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Welcome to Tell City, Indiana, where you can taste the good life!  The town was founded in 1858 by a group of Swiss-German immigrants who wanted to obtain affordable homesteads where the inhabitants could live in harmony.  The town was initially named Helvetia, but was soon changed to Tell City to make the name easier to pronounce for English-speaking people.  Legendary Swiss hero William Tell was...

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Welcome the Wartburg, Tennessee!  The town was founded in the 1840s by George Gerding who planned to establish a series of German colonies in the region.  The first settlers named the town after Wartburg Castle in Germany.  The town became the county seat of Morgan County in 1870.  The county is home to the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.  The Barkley Marathons, an ultramarathon trail race, wa...

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Welcome to Craig, Colorado, the "Elk Hunting Capital of the World!" The town of Craig was incorporated in 1908 and was named for Reverend William Bayard Craig, one of the town's financial backers.  Craig became the seat of Moffatt County when it was created out of the western portion of Routt County in 1911.  Located in the Yampa Valley, the area was inhabited by Native American tri...

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Welcome to Quitman, Texas, which marks our second time around all 50 states!  Quitman was originally settled in 1850 and is the county seat of Wood County.  The town was named for John A. Quitman who was elected governor of Mississippi that same year.  Quitman is the birthplace of Academy Award winning actor Sissy Spacek.  In addition to Spacek, the town has also been home to several other interes...

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Welcome to Van Buren, Arkansas, where history abounds!  Located on the northern bank of the Arkansas River near the Oklahoma border, the area was originally settled by Europeans in 1818 just before the Arkansas became a territory in 1819.  The town quickly became a popular port and trade center.  The town was officially named Van Buren in 1831 when the post office was constructed.  The town's...

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Welcome to Pratt, Kansas, Gateway to the High Plains!  The town was founded in 1884 on a site that was once hunting grounds for the Kiowa tribe.   The town is the county seat of Pratt County.  Both the town and county were named after Caleb Pratt, a Union officer who was killed during the Civil War.  The officer has no known connection to the area.  While naming the counties, the State Legislature...

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Welcome to Lovelock, Nevada, known as the "Banana Belt" for its mild high desert climate and more than 230 days of sunshine each year.  Originally called Big Meadows, the town sprang up at the midpoint of the Humboldt Trail to California.  George Lovelock bought the squatters' right for the area in 1866 and town was ultimately names after him.  The railroad arrived in 1868 and a liv...

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Welcome to De Ridder, LA, where they dwell in possibilities!  Originally named Schovall, De Ridder was renamed in 1903 by Jan de Goeijen to honor his sister-in-law.  De Goeijen was a railroad financier who brought the first train line to the town in 1897.  By the end of 1898, the town consisted on nearly 300 people, a hotel, a sawmill, and several stores.  Timber was the primary industry of the to...