NEW YORK, April 15, 2009
America's Coolest Small Towns, Circa 2009
Budget Travel Magazine's Readers Picked Them, And Results Were Announced On The Early Show
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Play CBS Video Video Coolest Small Towns Nina Willdorf from Budget Travel magazine explains to Harry Smith, the cool factor of Main streets across the USA.
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Owego, N.Y., in the state's Finger Lakes region, was voted the coolest small town in the land in the Budget Travel magazine poll. (CBS)
The poll was conducted by Budget Travel magazine, whose editor in chief, Nina Willdorf, revealed
She says the magazine was looking for Main Street, U.S.A. -- places where you find real people, excited to be part of their communities. And the results help readers discover up-and-coming towns.
To qualify, and town has to have a population of less than 10,000: "We're talking small towns, not small cities," Willdorf says.
As for what makes a town "cool," it's very subjective, Willdorf explains. It's not an exact science, but in general, there are three really good markers for a small town:
In order, the top ten in the poll were:
1) Owego, N.Y. (NOT Oswego, N.Y.)
2) Rockland, Maine
3) Grinnell, Iowa
4) Vevay, Ind.
5) Huntingdon, Pa.
6) Onancock, Va.
7) Jim Thorpe, Pa.
8) Mineral Point, Wis.
9) Silverton, Ore.
10) Port Royal, S.C.
Some details on them:
1. Owego, N.Y. (24,692 votes) (NOT to be confused with Oswego, N.Y.
The scene in Owego looks like it's straight off a postcard: a mix of quaint streets, local pride, and outdoor beauty of the Finger Lakes.
Located: About 200 miles northwest of NYC in New York's Finger Lake region
Population: 3,794
This spring, Owego revealed a new River Walk, a revamped waterfront area, with new storefronts and amenities along the Susquehanna River.
This is the kind of place where people don't lock their doors; it's authentic America. Historic buildings are being repurposed in cool ways; the former county jail has been transformed into a restaurant where you can have a pulled pork sandwich in what used to be a cell-block. I mean, what's more fun than that?
2. Rockland, Maine (23,261 votes)
This quintessential Northeastern harbor town has experienced a sort of renaissance in the past decade.
Located: About 40 miles from the Augusta, the capital, on Rockland Harbor in mid-coast Maine
Population: Nearly 8,000
The Strand Theater, one of the few remaining one-screen theaters in the country, shows indie films, documentaries, and classic movies.
3. Grinnell, Iowa (9,233)
An eclectic small town that blends the charm of a rural community with the quirkiness of a college town.
Located: About 55 miles from the capital, Des Moines.
Population: 9,205
Known for its historic architecture, especially the Jewel Box Bank designed by Louis Sullivan, who was Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor.
4. Vevay, Ind. (7,947)
The quintessential Midwestern one-stoplight town.
There's literally only one stoplight in this one-mile-long hometown.
Located: On the Indiana side of the Ohio River, Vevay sits almost exactly between Louisville and Cincinnati
Population: 1,622
They're big on wine here, and every weekend before Labor Day, Vevay hosts the Swiss Wine Festival, where visitors can taste over 100 local wines, take riverboat cruises, and try their skills at the Midwest Championship Grape Stomping Competition.
5. Huntingdon, Pa. (5,926)
A diverse college town set in the midst of the Appalachian Mountains.
Located: Central Pennsylvania, about 200 miles west of Philadelphia and 124 miles east of Pittsburgh
Population: 6,198
Juniata College hosts a series of performances from top musicians in classical and folk music. Baker Peace Chapel, a granite circle that sits atop a secluded hill, which was designed by artist and architect Maya Lin. That's some pretty serious architecture for such a small town!
6. Onancock, Va. (5,805 votes)
An old-school fishing village with remarkable views of the Eastern Shore from the surrounding water.
Located: About 181 miles from Washington, D.C. and 161 miles from Richmond.
Population: 1,406
This is a town best seen from the water. The most prominent historic landmark at the wharf, the Hopkins and Bro. Store, dates to 1842, and was the point of exit for farm goods leaving the shore. Today it's THE place to eat on the waterfront. The guitar-playing chef Johnny Mo serves up crab cakes and original music.
7. Jim Thorpe, Pa. (3,920 votes)
An old mining town along the Lehigh River, Jim Thorpe sits below two mountains ranges that are considered some of the top mountain-biking terrain in the US.
Located: At the base of the Pisgah and Flagstaff Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania, just 80 miles north of Philadelphia
Population: 4,878
A growing number of artists from New York and Philadelphia-ranging from silversmiths, ceramicists, painters, and photographers, are opening galleries downtown, which have extended hours the second Saturday of each month.
8. Mineral Point, Wis. (3,142 votes)
A rural English village filled with 19th century stone cottages surrounded by Wisconsin's rolling hills dotted with farms
Located: Southwest Wisconsin, 50 miles over from Madison
Population: 2,538
There's a growing artist community; you can find organic greens!
9. Silverton, Ore. (3,142)
An artsy, liberal town, that's perfect for nature lovers (It's the gateway to Oregon's largest state park, and it's home to the Oregon Gardens, an 80-acre botanical park).
Located: About 45 miles South of Portland
Population: 9,433
Silverton's also been dubbed the Mural City. Visitors can pick up a walking map of downtown to tour the 14 mural, including one by Norman Rockwell.
10. Port Royal, S.C. (2,256 votes)
Located: Between the Beaufort River and Battery Creek, in South Carolina's low country, 72 miles down shore from Charleston.
Population: 4,766
Quintessential Southern charm that the locals really embrace.
For more on all ten, and a dozen more, to boot, clickhere.
To vote for your town in the next Budget Travel poll, click here.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Add a Comment See all 29 Comments
- I live in Vevay Indiana and i think its cool that we are 4 on the list. vevay is a great place to live
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- CBS, this is for you.
http://tinyurl.com/cvzu7r
sincerely,
Juniata College - Reply to this comment
- I don't know who did the voting for "coolest towns" but I know for sure they've never lived in and raised children in Rockland, Maine! (Voted your #2 coolest town) I grew up and graduated high school there, my mother is still a Rockland resident. Though it is a beautiful environment, and has been cleaned up a lot in the past 20 years, and has some great new shops and restaurants, the underground drug scene there is still as rampant as it ever was. I moved to central Maine because I didn't want to raise my children in that environment. Every single person I went to high school with that has stayed in Rockland eventually got heavily involved in drugs, mainly heroin. for years, they had a bus that ran daily from Rockland to the methadone clinic in Portland! An entire schoolbus full of Rockland residents! Now, Rockland is one of 4 towns that has its OWN methadone clinic! Rockland is a small town compared to the others with methadone tratment clinics (Portland, Bangor, Waterville) also, the suicide rate in Knox County has got to rival some of our countrys largest cities. I can count more than 10 people from the Rockland area I knew who committed suicide, all were involved in drugs. I have a friend that is a well known actor from the early 80s who's family summered in the area who states she did more drugs in Rockland than she did in Los Angeles! It really is that bad, and has been for as long as I've ever known and I have a long history with this town. Its a shame you don't do more research on surveys like this. I feel bad for the "people from away" (if you weren't born and raised in Maine you're always an outsider) that move to Rockland to raise their family only to watch their children become heroin addicts and either blow their brains out or become a lifelong member of Rocklands methaone clinic.
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- Phonics, CBS, phonics. Juniata College. It's "June-ee-ah-ta" College not "Wah-nee-tah" College. Pretty sad for a National news team AND a major travel magazine spokesperson. Does nobody check details anymore?
'82 grad - Reply to this comment
- CBS,
I am disappointed in your coverage of the Coolest Places in America. As I graduate of JUNiata College, I am appalled by the mispronunciation of its name. - Reply to this comment
- Why do people think the presence of artists, coffee barns and those potpourri-reeking knick knack shops make towns into wonderful utopias?
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- I hope that at some point, CBS will correct the pronounciation of JUNiata college. It is really irritating for the students who went there to constantly have to correct people about the pronounciation. Feel free to ask any of the students - they were pretty offended by the comment.
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- When EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG and only YOU are right, it is time to consider that the problem may be with YOU dear, not everyone else. :)
I have a feeling you would be a complete downer WHEREVER you lived.
Posted by CayugaLakeGuy at 9:33 PM : Apr 15, 2009
LOL. I hear ya. Now.. why don't you go and LIVE in one of those towns? hmmm? Reminds me of people visiting the Bahamas or Carribbean and wishing they could live there--with no clue about cost of living, or the cost of food or anything else--the place is "idyllic because people see what they want to see and ignore reality.
I point out the fallacies in these types of "studies" which often are nothing more than a lot of money and chamber of commerce hype for each town with no basis in reality. BTW, the majoriy of the people in Jamaica, the Bahamas and the West Indies live in abject poverty and suffer from many chronic illnesses. In 1990, a box of cornflakes imported from the US cost 13 US dollars and was food for only a few- HIV is endemic as are many STDs and drug use-but for folks like you---you can't see beyond the "pristine beaches, the 'fun" and whatever else is packaged and canned to dupe you.
The sad fact is, there is a HUGE difference than visiting a place and actually having to live there, but unfortunately, some will migrate to these places, believing the 'ads" and regret it tremendously.
I loved living in Presque Isle, Maine, Chula Vista, CA., Cincinnati, Paris and love to visit Rome, Milan, Florence, Holland, England, Chicago, Barcelona, Grand Junction, CO and Atlanta, GA--but visiting is NOT like living anywhere. Those who 'visit' tend to not know, not see and gloss over the reality of a place--and why not--you're leaving in just a little while anyway. LOL - Reply to this comment
- Silverton is MY hometown. Born and raised--wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
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- I think it is a little ridiculous that a person whose job it was to learn about the coolest towns in the US to not even be able to pronounce the name of the college in Huntingdon PA correctly. Since when is Juan spelled Jun how about lets try Juniata pronounced like it looks (Jun being pronounced like the month June)??
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- Huntingdon PA? No industry, no employment opportunities. The younger generations leave and don't come back. There's simply nothing in this town. I left 22 years ago and never looked back. I took my daughter on a tour a couple weeks ago and the schools are falling apart. The middle school steps are crumbling, they had to brick up the windows in the pool to save energy. No theaters, nothing for kids to do except hang out at the mini-marts One of the worst hospitals in the state, yet at the same time, one of the most expensive. This town is dying.
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- As wonderful as all the towns listed sound, I am amazed and surprised at OAK PARK, IL not been included. Based on what I saw as the criteria's I would have expected Oak Park to be in the top 10.
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- Onancock, VA??
I'd like to have been present
at that name-picking meeting. - Reply to this comment
- Huntingdon COOL? You've got to be kidding. It maybe a cool town if you're a well off College prof, or a student who's outta there in 4 years, or if you've made your money elsewhere and retire there to do your painting, mountain biking, photography or other yuppie-approved nonsense. But these articles are a slap in the face to the people who live in these towns and face lack of opportunity, employment, healthcare etc. When I went to school there, we callously called the locals "townies". Now I realize how sadly inappropriate that was.
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- Old town Covington, Louisiana. Lively and lovely-- they've preserved and updated the vernacular shotgun style houses--imagine wide porches, gas sconces, pretty little yards amid a town with people out eating and shopping at 9:00 pm -- in a suburb!
There are many art galleries, shops and incredibly hip, healthy and fun restaurants- local produce, fish, creative combinations, but not so chi-chi- you can't relax.
It blew my mind- I never expected Covington to be so cool. - Reply to this comment
- It shocks and apaws me to see grown people being so mean about a simple competition. If their is a west coast bias that is because the east coast was not available to nominate their towns as well as vote for them. I do not understand why some of the users feel the need to bring out the negative of every place. We should all be focusing on the positive of EVERY town big or small. EVERY town is special and has their own unique charm to bring to the table as well as their own problems. All of the towns have their own character and I plan on visiting every single one.
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- What's with the obvious East Coast bias? Did you only poll folks from Chicago to New York?
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- What about Intercourse, Pennsylvania!!!
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- One town west of the Rockies? What kind of poll was this?!
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- How is it that there are no West Coast cities represented on this list? I smell a Left Coast bias...
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