Small Town News

Welcome to Eufaula, Alabama! Eufaula is located in southeastern Alabama along the Alabama-Georgia border.  The town is situated along the Chattahoochie River and became a major shipping hub in the 1850s for goods bound for the Port of Apalachicola on the Gulf of Mexico.  Shipping by river declined swiftly as rail lines were established in the area after the Civil War.  Lake Eufaula, a reservoir cr...

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Welcome to Las Animas, Colorado, "The City of Souls!" Las Animas is the county seat of Bent County and is located in southeast Colorado.  Las Animas means "the souls" in Spanish.  According to one legend, the town is named after a group of conquistadors who died without the last rites sacrament of a priest while exploring the area in the 16th century.     The area is home to se...

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Welcome to Vermillion, Nebraska, "The Town AI Created!" If you're a curious listener who takes the time to learn more about our trip locations each week, you will have discovered that Vermillion doesn't actually exist.  Last week's town, town tidbits, and articles were predominantly created by ChatGPT.  In this episode we explore the power of AI with Dr. Jess.  We hope you...

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Welcome to Vermillion, Nebraska!  Vermillion is located in southwest Nebraska about 20 miles north of Kansas.  The town originally began as a trading post in the early 1860s.  The town grew quickly after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in the area in the late 1860s and was incorporated in 1870.  Vermillion is located near Harlan  County Lake, a reservoir created when the Republican...

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Welcome to Sidney, Montana, "Montana's Sunrise City!"  Sidney Montana is located 10 miles west of the North Dakota border and 100 miles south of Canada on the banks of the Yellowstone River.  Founded in 1911, The town's major industries are oil and agriculture including the production of sugar beets.  Sugar beets are grown in areas to cold for sugar cane to produce white sugar....

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Welcome to Longboat Key, Florida!  Longboat Key is located on a barrier island of the same name off the Gulf Coast of Central Florida in Manatee and Sarasota Counties.  Longboat Key along with several other barrier islands separate Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  Longboat Key was originally inhabited by the Timucuan and Caloosa tribes.  The island was sparsely inhabited until the late 1880s...

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Welcome to Hamburg, Iowa, "The Cornerstone of Iowa!"  Hamburg is the most southwestern city in Iowa located on the borders of Nebraska to the west and Missouri to the south.   The first settlers to the town thought they were settling in Missouri and only discovered the town was in Iowa when a survey was made when Iowa entered the union in 1846.  The town was formally laid out in 1857 and...

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Welcome to Yanceyville, North Carolina, "Tradition with Vision!" Yanceyville is located in the Piedmont Triad Region and is the county seat of Caswell County.  The town was founded in 1792 and was named Yanceyville when it was incorporated in 1833.  With no railway, waterway, or any other defining feature to attract commerce, Yanceyville has struggled to remain a town throughout most of...

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Welcome to Caliente, Nevada, "City of Roses!"  The city is located in Lincoln County and is the least populated incorporated city in Nevada.  Originally named Calientes, the town was built on land from the Culverwell Ranch in 1901 and was named after the hot springs in the area.  A post office was erected late in 1901 and the "s" was dropped from the city's name, leaving i...

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Welcome to Tazewell, Tennessee!  Located in the Cumberland Gap, the town is about 45 minutes north of Knoxville on the northern slope of Wallen Ridge.  The Cumberland Gap was once referred to as the "Gateway to the West."  It is the only continuous pass in the Cumberland Mountain ridgeline as was used by settlers to travel into the western frontiers of Tennessee and Kentucky.  Tazewell w...

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Welcome to Pascagoula, Mississippi, "Mississippi's Flagship City" and home of the craziest squirrel in the South!  The town takes it's name from the Native American tribe who inhabited the area when Hernando de Soto explored the area in the 1540s.  After Europeans arrived the area changed hands many times between the Spanish, French, and English and was ultimately claimed by th...

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Welcome to Baxter Springs, Kansas! Baxter Springs is located in the southeastern corner of Kansas on the Oklahoma border.  Two mineral springs in the area have attracted people to the area for thousands of years.  The site was a stop along the Black Dog Trail, a trail created by the Osage people in the early 1800s to allow easier passage from their winter territory to their summer hunting grounds....

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Welcome to Kilgore, Texas, "The City of Stars!"  Kilgore is located in east Texas and is about 70 miles west of Shreveport, LA.  The town was founded in 1872 when the International-Great Northern Railroad constructed a rail line between Palestine and Longview and purchased a parcel of land to establish a new train station and town.  Kilgore thrived as a farming community until the Great...