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Small Towns with BIG Claims to Fame *ONLINE ONLY*

November 2024

By Victor Block

Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants to the United States, most of whom actually were German, brought that tradition with them, although they substituted a groundhog as the furry forecaster. The center of national attention each Groundhog Day is the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. That little village (population about 6,000) takes center stage as the one-day Weather Capital of the World. Since 1887, people there and throughout the country have waited to learn whether Punxsutawney Phil will foresee six more weeks of cold, or the approach of spring.

No matter what the prediction, the tens of thousands of visitors who descend upon the town will have their celebration. That includes a banquet, ball, talent show, art exhibit – and more.

Rather than the brown or grey of groundhog fur, koi fish display a virtual rainbow of ornamental hues. They add a bright splash of color against the backdrop of hundreds of gleaming white Buddha statues in Arlee, Montana.

Contrasting in size with that tiny town (population 720), the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas is nestled in a 10-acre plot which also is adorned with 1,000 native trees and thousands of blooming flowers. Other landscape features include a pond and four prayer wheels.

The main attraction is the collection of Montana-made Buddha images arranged in the shape of an eight-spoked Dharma wheel, which represents the Buddha’s teaching. The outer circle is lined by 1,000 mound-like stupas, each of which contains an image of the female deity Tara.

It’s imitation ice cream cones that line the streets of Le Mars, Iowa (10,000), the self-proclaimed Ice Cream Capital of the World. This boast is based upon the fact that more of that delicious dessert is produced there by a single company than in any other city. Wells Enterprises, Inc. has been making Blue Bunny brand ice cream in Le Mars since 1913.

A tribute to that story is a collection or 55 six-foot-tall ice cream cones, and a Fiberglas cow, which line the streets of the community. The cones were painted by artists from throughout the Midwest.

Compared with Well Enterprises, Ben & Jerry’s is the new kid on the block in the ice cream world. However, since it was founded in 1978 in a renovated gas station, it has grown like Topsey and expanded into an international subsidiary of Unilever, a Britain-based conglomerate. Its Waterbury, Vermont factory, which manufactures more than 350,000 pints a day, offers public tours. An added attraction is the Flavor Graveyard, which is festooned with headstones that list the birth and death dates of discontinued products along with creative tributes to them.

Luggage, like luscious ice cream, also can go missing. For those seeking a lost suitcase, and others who might be looking for a bargain, there’s a kind of graveyard for unclaimed bags in Scottsboro, Alabama (15,000). When an airline cannot track down the owner of lost luggage, it’s shipped to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a 50,000-square-foot facility that serves as a merchandise outlet, event venue and food court. Approximately one-third of the unclaimed items are sold through the on-site retail store and online, about an equal number is donated to charities and the rest are recycled.

Another loss has taken place at the creepy looking home in Bangor Maine (32,000) where author Stephen King lived for 37 years. While he has moved, the blood-red Victorian house, which is surrounded by a black iron fence decorated with bats, gargoyles and spiders, may be viewed from the street. Other sites that appear in King’s nightmare-inducing novels that visitors to Bangor may view include the Mount Hope Cemetery, Thomas Hill Standpipe and a giant statue of Paul Bunyan, which comes to life in two of the writer’s books.

The claim to fame of a much smaller house located in Tupelo, Mississippi (38,000) is that it was the birthplace of Elvis Presley in 1935. Before the “King of Rock ‘n Roll” moved with his family to Memphis when he was 13 years old, he attended the Assembly of God Church with his parents, where he was exposed to the gospel music that had a major influence on his career. Visitor sites include the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum and the hardware store where his mother bought the future megastar his first guitar.

This is but a sampling of small towns that have a big claim to fame because of who lived there, what takes or took place there, or attractions located there. While big cities have much to recommend them, a visit to a little location can be equally enjoyable and rewarding.