Exploring The Unusual Realities Of America’s Strangest Small Towns
Any country will have its bustling metropolises and its remote, rural towns, but what those places look like can vary wildly from state to state. And while major cities can often have their own character, this reality is particularly palpable when it comes to America's small towns.
After all, when a community is left alone for long enough, it can start developing a culture that won't really make sense to anyone else. So when visitors do pass through and see a bizarre sight that nobody else seems to bat an eye at, it can feel like stepping into one big inside joke. Strange as they may be, all of these towns are real and make sense to somebody.
Roswell, New Mexico
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, a rancher named W.W. "Mac" Brazel was driving through the New Mexico desert on June 14, 1947, when he came across the strange, metallic wreckage of an unidentified craft. Although this was part of a U.S. Air Force high-altitude balloon program called Project Mogul, residents in the area were convinced this was a crashed spacecraft. And the Air Force preferred to let them think that.
As theory-crafting about aliens grew in popularity from the 1970s to the 1990s and beyond, Roswell has become a haven for true believers. The town has used that reputation to its advantage, as it hosts the International UFO Museum and Research Center, includes an image of an alien in its civic seal, and has shops filled with UFO-themed memorabilia along its main street.
Casey, Illinois
Those who visit Casey, Illinois, will quickly notice that it's home to an unusually large number of giant objects, and that's essentially put the town on the map. According to Atlas Obscura, its 55-foot tall wind chime is a Guinness World Record holder, as is the 56-foot tall rocking chair pictured at left towering over an adult person.
But while these examples made waves in the record books, they're only a sample of the giant objects that the town has added to its eccentric collection of landmarks. Alongside this giant mailbox that opens and closes with a cable winch, there's a giant golf tee, a giant bird cage, and giant knitting needles, to name a few.
Centralia, Pennsylvania
According to the History Channel, the city council of Centralia, Pennsylvania, decided to burn the coal mining town's landfill to clean it up for a Memorial Day celebration. However, the fire resulting from this decision ended up spreading into the mine and burned so intensely that its fire is still raging today. It would end up dooming what was once a busy town.
These underground fires continually cause smoke and noxious gas to fill Centralia's air, shifting the ground behind former residents' homes and creating sinkholes. In 1992, the state government kicked out all but seven residents and removed Centralia's zip code. Those seven remaining residents are forbidden from passing down or selling their homes due to the persistent danger.
San Luis Obispo, California
As The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported, the town's nationally famous Bubblegum Alley began in the late 1950s, when local high school students decided to stick their used gum in a seemingly random alley as a senior prank. However, the prank quickly snowballed into a tradition that involved not only other schools but the town's residents at large.
Although the city attempted to clean the gum away on multiple occasions, the tradition persisted to the point where Bubblegum Alley is practically San Luis Obispo's defining feature. Although some residents think it's an eyesore, the tradition has enough supporters that Bubblegum Alley may never be cleared away, especially with visitors continually adding to it.
Colma, California
According to KQED, about three-quarters of the land in Colma, California, is zoned for cemeteries, and much of its local economy is dependent on the funeral industry. Although the town has approximately 1,500 living residents, there are a staggering number of deceased ones.
As Pat Hatfield of the local historical society put it, "Maybe a million and a half underground, so we're a little bit outgunned." As for why Colma has such a macabre reason to exist, its very creation is the result of San Franciso's government and residents wanting its cemeteries moved elsewhere to take advantage of the city's valuable land in the late 19th Century. Since the dead had to go somewhere, Colma was incorporated as the Bay Area's cemetery town.
Slab City, California
Often referred to as "the last free place" or "an enclave of anarchy," Slab City is an unincorporated community with no official electricity, sewers, trash collections, or water systems. However, it also doesn't have any taxes or law enforcement. And that's because this unofficial "town" was never supposed to exist.
After World War II, the U.S. government shut down and abandoned Camp Dunlap, a former Marine Corps base. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, this led a group of squatters to make their homes among the leftover concrete slabs (hence "Slab City") and create a community of hundreds of survivalists and other fringe residents that persists today.
Cassadaga, Florida
If "Spiritualist" and "Mediumship" seem like odd names for streets, it's worth noting that they're perfectly normal in Cassadaga. According to Flamingo Magazine, this is because a famous trance medium named George Colby founded the community on his mentor's instruction. The Spiritualist Camp he founded was supposed to be a winter home for members of the Cassadaga spiritualist community in New York but became a bedrock for an entirely new town.
And Cassadaga, Florida's population and atmosphere haven't strayed far from its roots, as the town is considered the "psychic capital of the world." Although the town's messaging in past decades suggested it was an off-beat place where people were into exploring the supernatural and other "woo-woo" interests, this framing has since become more serious as the adoption of these concepts has become more popular in American society.
Dudleytown, Connecticut
According to the New England Historical Society, Dudleytown is supposed to be a cursed town that was founded by the descendants of a failed usurper to King Henry VIII's throne. Eventually, the story goes, enough mysterious deaths and instances of people suddenly losing their sanity mounted that residents fearfully abandoned the town.
However, the historical society noted that the real reason for the abandonment had to do more with poor farmland and new westward opportunities than any curse. It's especially worth noting that the tales of woe cited around the town's residents were either fabricated or exaggerated. Nonetheless, Dudleytown's legend persists enough that residents have described the influx of tourists recording their supernatural podcasts as the area's real curse.
Cottonwood, Idaho
Not everywhere will give visitors the opportunity to sleep in a giant dog, but Cottonwood, Idaho, isn't like most places. And that's because it's home to the Dog Bark Park Inn. This is a bed and breakfast that not only houses guests in a giant beagle but is dotted with dog-themed decorations that also include a giant fire hydrant.
Although it's far off the beaten path, Travel + Leisure noted that visitors will make the trip out to Cottonwood just for the dog hotel. And as the hosts — Frances and Dennis — said, "Responsible dogs who arrive with their well-behaved humans are welcome to stay."
The Villages, Florida
If its demographics and the ubiquity of its golf carts make The Villages seem like America's largest retirement community, that's essentially how it was founded. According to Vanity Fair, Harold Schwartz was able to sell off his tracts of land in Florida by turning them into a series of developments that offered an all-inclusive lifestyle for Baby Boomers.
The result is a town where about 70% of its residents are over 55 and where that's usually how old someone needs to be to qualify for a house. And while the golf carts have become a signature aspect of the local culture in their own right, they're also there because there are dozens of golf courses in the area.
Clark, South Dakota
Although Clark, South Dakota, is a fairly normal small town throughout most of the year, there's one annual event in early August that sets it apart. That's because when the Potato Days festival rolls around, the town hosts its annual mashed potato wrestling matches.
Although it's not unheard of for people to wrestle in a foodstuff, mashed potatoes were chosen because they're the primary crop that many farmers in the Clark area grow, according to South Dakota Magazine. That's the reason for the potato-based festival at large, but the mashed potato wrestling just happened to attract the most attention.
Gibsonton, Florida
Although they still exist on a smaller scale throughout the country, traveling carnivals featuring giants, conjoined twins, and little people used to be immensely popular in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. And when many of those carnival and sideshow performers weren't on the road, they made their homes in Gibsonton, Florida.
According to The Guardian, these performers considered Gibsonton a safe haven that afforded them some privacy in their otherwise public and complicated lives. Today, it remains one of the last centers of carnival culture in the nation and tries to keep the old traditions alive while also being a rich font for history about the once-dominant form of American entertainment.
Scottsboro, Alabama
When an airline can't track down the owner of some lost luggage, where does it go? The answer is that it goes to Unclaimed Baggage, a retail store in Scottsboro, Alabama, that has contracts with every major airline in the nation to purchase their unclaimed luggage and resell it to people looking for bargains.
Despite sounding like the world's biggest lost and found, Alabama Travel said Unclaimed Baggage attracts millions of customers every year to its single 50,000-square-foot location. Seven thousand new items are added to the store's collection each day and consist of clothing, jewelry, electronics, books, sporting goods, and various other accessories that travelers never claimed. It also features a small museum of lost luggage, as shown here.
Salton City, California
Fifty years ago, it would be absurd to consider the prestigious vacation spot known as Salton City a small town. But while the accidental lake that formed the basis of the once scenic town made it bustle in the early to mid-20th Century, rising salinity from agricultural runoff has made the town increasingly toxic since the '70s.
This has all but destroyed the town's ecosystem and made it hazardous to live in due to the toxic gases that now characterize the area around the Salton Sea. As a result, all but a few thousand residents have left the area, and many of its buildings have been left to rot. As Salton Sea program director Frank Ruiz told CNBC, "People here used to fish, swim, bring their boats. They went from living in paradise to living in Hell."
Fall River, Massachusetts
Although Fall River is hardly the only small town in America to be scandalized by murder, it was saddled with one of the nation's most infamous cases. That's because Fall River is where Lizzie Borden was alleged to have murdered her parents with a hatchet, and she remains the killer in legend despite her eventual acquittal for the crime.
Not only does the scene of these crimes still stand, but it's now a hotel. According to Mass Live, it was on the top 20 shortlist for USA Today's poll of the favorite haunted hotel in the nation. It's reportedly been restored to look as it did during the night of the murders, and guests often mentioned feeling a ghostly presence lurking there.
Bisbee, Arizona
It's hard to find a town in the United States that blends its old-world charm with its new-world values quite like Bisbee, Arizona. According to AZ Central, Bisbee was voted number 42 on Travel Lemming's list of the best places in the world to visit in 2024.
And the reason why has to do with its unique atmosphere, as Bisbee offers a step back into the Wild West with its former mines and historic saloons. At the same time, it has a reputation as a Bohemian hub of art and culture loaded with art galleries and especially eye-catching street art.
Monowi, Nebraska
Although there are a few ghost towns found throughout the United States, Monowi, Nebraska, avoids this designation thanks to Elsie Eiler. As The Omaha World-Herald confirmed in a 2023 report, that's because Eiler is the only remaining resident of the town.
Although she's run the Monowi Tavern for 50 years, Eiler has since become the town's mayor by virtue of being the only person still living there. Although some old signs may still list the town's population as two, that changed after her husband Rudy — for whom this library is named — passed away in 2004.
Story, Indiana
Until 1978, Story, Indiana's history was a very common tale. According to The Courier & Press, it was a small farming town that lost residents in stages when the railroad passed it by, the Great Depression loomed, and the nearby Salt Creek was dammed. However, that trend toward Story becoming yet another ghost town halted when a local couple bought the general store and turned it into the Story Inn.
After that couple bought the rest of Story's 23 acres, they sold it all to a lawyer named Rick Hofstetter in 1993. Although the known still only has six residents and practically consists of the Story Inn, Hofstetter has been able to expand its amenities and attract visitors from all over. Although Story may not be more populous than it was during its decline, the town has nonetheless been reborn.
Idyllwild, California
Although Idyllwild's appeal to Californians has historically been its status as an idyllic mountain town, it's also developed some interesting quirks over the years. According to LA Weekly, this is partially because residents Steve Moulton and David Jerome invented their own mythical, Bigfoot-like creature called the Idyll-Beast.
Not only do both of them do their part to keep the legend alive with a tongue-in-cheek research center, but Jerome can even be booked for events such as the Idyll-Beast. Idyllwild was also consistently elected golden retrievers named Max as mayor for over a decade and is currently on Max III.
Seward, Nebraska
It's unclear how this started, but Seward, Nebraska, has traditionally been known as the "Fourth of July city" due to its tradition of ringing in every Independence Day with a festival. According to KETV Omaha, that celebration was in jeopardy in 1968 until a group of high school seniors known as the "Whiz Bang Kids" took the vacant leadership role of planning the festivities.
By 1974, this celebration expanded when Harold Davisson — the father of one of these youths — got the idea to turn a 45-ton vault into the world's largest time capsule. This capsule features over 5,000 items, including a motorcycle and a then-new Chevy Vega. It is scheduled to be opened on July 4, 2025.
Adams, Tennessee
Although Adams isn't a particularly strange town on its own, it's nonetheless considered infamous in some circles due to the Bell Witch Cave. According to Atlas Obscura, local legends hold that a witch inexplicably started terrorizing the Bell family in 1817 from a cave near their farm.
Although it is unclear what issue the witch — apparently named Kate — had with this family, her legend became so widespread as to draw the curiosity of U.S. President Andrew Jackson, who was reportedly scared off after he arrived to investigate it. The cave remains a fixture of local legend and is thought to be haunted.
Terlingua, Texas
At first glance, Terlingua has the trappings of an Old West silver mining town, and the biggest reason to visit it is to access the nearby Big Bend National Park. But while that ghost town is still there and loaded with abandoned vehicles and other artifacts from the 1940s, that's not all that makes it special.
As Southern Living reported, that's because many of Terlingua's residents are artists and other "eccentrics" who have remolded much of the area into their creative image, with one example of their handiwork being this big dinosaur near Big Bend. Terlingua is also the site of the annual CASI Terlingua International Chili Championship, which is described as "the granddaddy of all chili cook-offs."
Whittier, Alaska
According to CNN, there are about 200 permanent residents of Whittier, Alaska. Like many small towns, everybody knows each other there. But unlike every other small town in the country, the reason for that is that most people in Whittier live in the same building.
That building is Begich Towers Incorporated, a 14-story brutalist complex that features a hospital, school, church, store, and living arrangements for nearly all of its citizens in just one structure. It's rumored that residents haven't left the building in years, and in Whittier, they don't necessarily have to.
Solvang, California
With its windmills, quaint architectural style, and a replica of the famous "Little Mermaid" statue in Copenhagen, visitors to Solvang, California, could be forgiven for thinking they've just walked into a small town in Denmark. And that impression was created by design.
As The Los Angeles Times reported, Solvang was founded by Danish immigrants in 1911 but largely looked closer to a rural American town than anything back home. However, that changed when the now-defunct magazine The Saturday Evening Post described Solvang as "a spotless Danish village that blooms like a rose" in 1947. Since the town was struggling economically at the time, it was revamped to fit this idyllic image and draw in more tourists.
Tangier, Virginia
As the BBC reported, visiting Tangier Island in Virginia feels a lot like stepping back in time. Tangier is a small community of less than 500 people and is only accessible by boat, which means that it's not unusual for residents to bury fallen relatives in their backyards and not lock their doors.
There is also no cell phone service, most people don't drive cars, and the area is mostly dry, with no alcohol sold in its grocery store or its restaurants. However, the most fascinating aspect of Tangier is its local accent. Although this accent sounds British, it actually bears a closer resemblance to the way Colonial Americans used to speak before the Revolution. For instance, it's common to say "ort" instead of "ought" and "yorn" instead of "yours" there.
Hell, Michigan
In a report for Business Insider, Amanda Adler noted that the story behind how Hell, Michigan came to get its unusual name in 1841 is not a consistent one. Some say the mosquitoes made even Hell's founders hate it, while other legends suggest it was named either out of indifference or out of a translation of the German term for "beautifully bright" (schön hell).
But however Hell came to be named, it seems that nobody finds the name more amusing than its residents. Spooky and hellish decor is everywhere in town, as are Hell-related puns. Since it's an unincorporated community, visitors can even pay to be mayor for a day.
Alma, Arkansas
Founded in 1872, Alma, Arkansas, is known for unusual landmarks like a giant can of spinach and an eight-foot-tall statue of Popeye the Sailor Man downtown. As for why these are here, it's because Alma's long-time nickname is the spinach capital of the world.
According to the Arkansas Municipal League, this is due to the fact that at least as far back as 1987, Alma grew and canned about 65% of all the spinach in the United States. At its peak, this amounted to about 60 million pounds of spinach a year.
Miracle Village, Florida
According to Time, Florida has some of the most stringent laws regarding X-rated offenses. One of the state's restrictions is that offenders can't live within 1,000 to 3,000 feet (depending on the county) of a place where children might gather. Although this is necessary to protect children, it creates a logistical problem: Where can these offenders legally live?
In 2009, that problem was solved by creating a town called Miracle Village, which is mostly populated by offenders. As such, it has stricter rules than the average HOA, as there's a community-wide 7 pm curfew, many residents are required to wear GPS-enabled ankle bracelets at all times, some can't use the internet, and they're all prohibited from interacting with minors.
Calico, California
Like many towns during the California Gold Rush, Calico sprung up amid the boom of gold and silver discoveries during the mid-1800s but devolved into a crumbling ghost town once the rush declined. However, Calico's story gets far more unique after that.
According to SFGate, Walter Knott was passionate about California history, and when he laid eyes on Calico, it became the clear inspiration for what would eventually be known as Knott's Berry Farm. However, Knott's passion for it didn't stop there because once the theme park became popular, he bought the real Calico and restored it into the historic attraction it is today.
Georgetown, Colorado
According to the University Press Of Colorado, Georgetown was once known as the "Silver Queen of the Rockies" due to being one of the first mining communities in Colorado. However, falling silver prices and the general decline of the gold and silver rush at the turn of the 20th century led the town's primary industry to collapse.
Yet, unlike the ghost towns further west, Georgetown was able to rebound into the small, quaint town that exists today. While the tourism from its local skiing resources helped this transition along, the community's passion for historical preservation and commitment to the Victorian aesthetic shown here have helped the town maintain a unique, picturesque identity.
Homosassa, Florida
Homosassa, Florida, is home to what visitors and locals alike affectionately call "Monkey Island." And indeed, this small artificial island does have spider monkeys living on it, even though they weren't always there. According to Atlas Obscura, this space was converted to an island by a developer named G.A. Furgason after a rock outcropping in the area kept damaging boats.
Furgason also built the Homosassa Wildlife State Park, which received some monkeys after they were no longer needed for polio vaccine research. However, these monkeys kept escaping the wildlife reserve and menacing tourists, so Furgason had them brought to Monkey Island. He had intended this site to be their Alcatraz, but like the famous prison, it's now an attraction in and of itself.
Nipton, California
Although Nipton's mining history makes it fairly common among small towns straddling the California-Nevada border, the fact that it's spent much of its post-heyday years for sale gives it a unique modern history. According to Business Insider, Jerry Freeman and Roxanne Lang bought the entirety of the town for about $200,000 during the 1980s.
After that, it was sold to a cannabis company called American Green in 2017 for just under $5 million. Although they planned to turn it into a niche tourist destination, those plans apparently fell through, and it was sold to a Scottsdale-based energy company for $7.1 million during the following year. Although an unspecified religious cult, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and someone trying to build a rail line to Las Vegas all tried to buy Nipton, a risqué Las Vegas circus company called Spiegelworld ended up buying Nipton for $2.5 million in 2021.
Philippi, West Virginia
Housed inside the Barbour Country Historical Museum pictured here (which started life as a B&O Railroad Depot in 1911) is a sight that would mystify and unnerve any unprepared visitors to Phillippi, West Virginia. It consists of two human figures known as the "Phillippi mummies."
After two inmates at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum passed away in 1888, a local farmer took possession of their bodies to test his secret and eventually patented mummification formula. Although The Columbus Dispatch noted that he didn't sell this formula, he was able to sell the mummies to P.T. Barnum, who toured Europe with them before they finally found their way back to Phillippi.
Santa Claus, Indiana
Not only is there really a town in Indiana called Santa Claus, but the town takes that name seriously. Santa Claus essentially celebrates Christmas year-round, which means the festive spirit is just as strong in the summer as it is in the winter.
The centerpiece of the town's holiday fun is Holiday World, a theme park with a waterpark, a wide collection of roller coasters, and a land for multiple holidays. As for how the town came to get its unusual name, Travel + Leisure explained that the first choice for a town name was rejected during the 19th Century, so the community decided on Santa Claus.
Williamstown, Kentucky
Given its sheer size, the first thing people tend to notice when they arrive in Williamstown, Kentucky, is the Ark Encounter. The structure is somewhere between a theme park and a religious museum centered around the story of Noah's Ark.
According to Travel Kentucky, the Ark stands 510 feet in length, 85 feet in width, and 51 feet in height, which is intended to match the dimensions discussed in the Bible. Recent years have also seen the Ark Encounter incorporate a virtual reality experience with moving seats.
Toad Suck, Arkansas
According to Bloomberg, Toad Suck, Arkansas, is more of an incorporated patch of land than an official town, but there's nonetheless a small community at the heart of it. And, of course, the first question that tends to come up there is, "What's with the name?"
As is often the case with strange names like this, it's a figure of legend. Reportedly, a ferry once crossed the Arkansas River between Faulkner County and Perry County, and people used to drink a lot on the Perry County side. Apparently, church ladies used to describe regular visitors to that side by saying, "He'll be sucking on a bottle so much he's swollen up like a toad."
Center, North Dakota
According to CBS News, Center, North Dakota, was revealed to have a bizarrely appropriate name in 2015. At first, it was likely named because it exists at the center of Oliver County. But it turned out that the people who named it were more correct than they realized.
That's because Center is not only dead-center in that county but serves as the exact middle point of all of North America. That honor was once thought to belong to another North Dakota town named Rugby, but residents were relieved that it was still a fact about the state that otherwise has little to its name.
Unalaska, Alaska
Unalaska is a scenic waterside down, but living there can get a little confusing, at least when it comes to describing the name to other people. As the city's website outlines, it doesn't help that the town is also known as "Dutch Harbor," so it's not uncommon not to realize that this is the same place as Unalaska.
Of course, the big question is why an Alaskan town is called "Unalaska." And the local government takes pains to explain that it didn't try to secede from the state, nor was it named as some kind of Dadaist anti-town. It was instead an amalgamation of various Russian spellings like "Ounalashka," which were themselves derived from the Aleut word, "Agunalaksh."
Chicken, Alaska
Despite its name and this prominent statue in the small village of Chicken, Alaska, it wasn't named after any particular knack for poultry farming in the area. In fact, Conde Nast Traveler explained that Chicken was founded in the 1890s by gold prospectors who were trawling the Fortymile River. So, why is it called Chicken?
Well, these prospectors survived their first winter in Alaska by hunting a local bird called a ptarmigan, which was essential enough to the survival of early Alaskans that it's now their state bird. Naturally, this led the settlers to want to name their town after the bird, but they realized they weren't confident in the spelling of its name. So, they named the town Chicken instead.
Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa
According to Atlas Obscura, an Iowan real estate developer was so inspired by the spiritual lifestyle of deceased guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that he wanted to create a community fundamentally based around transcendental meditation. Although southeast Iowa isn't considered a likely place for such a community, the idea nonetheless gained enough ground that Maharishi Vedic City became the state's newest incorporated town in 2001.
And true to the developer and his mentor's vision, daily life in this town is based on the Hindu concept of Veda (knowledge), which can be seen in everything from the community's daily meditation practices to the town's architecture. It's a noted retreat for the director David Lynch, a long-time proponent of transcendental meditation.
