The 20 Best Small Towns in America
From the Berkshires to the Cascades, we've crunched the numbers and pulled a list some of the most interesting spots around the country
- By Susan Spano and Aviva Shen
- Smithsonian magazine, May 2012
In Gig Harbor, Washington, there’s a whole lot of boating going on—but also gallery-hopping and wine-tasting. (Brian Smale)
Take numerous art galleries. Add sailboats and local wines. Stir. Enjoy.
If you come by boat, as so many people do—beginning with a team of surveyors from the Congressionally mandated Wilkes Expedition in 1841—it’s easy to miss the narrow opening on the ragged west edge of Puget Sound that marks the entrance to Gig Harbor. That would be a pity because it leads to one of the snuggest harbors in the Pacific Northwest, a thicket of sailboat masts rimmed by tall pines on the far side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. When the sun shines you can see Mount Rainier and the snow-crusted Cascades on the eastern horizon; in squally weather the sky closes in so seascape artists paint from memory. Never mind. As local gallery owner Bill Fogarty would say, “Don’t let the drizzle get you down. Think of what it does for the rhododendrons.”
The unprepossessing little town (pop. 7,200) has lately been discovered by outlanders from Tacoma and Seattle in search of still relatively affordable waterfront property. Chain stores have sprung up out on the highway and old fishing docks have yielded to fancy powerboats and yachts. Day-trippers come for gourmet restaurants with Washington State wines, for nautical tchotchkes and for gallery walks held on the first Saturday of the month, during which one might meet, say, renowned local jeweler Kit Kuhn.
Yet Gig Harbor remains a working fishing village with a fleet of about two dozen boats that head up to Alaska for salmon every summer. The fishing way of life is still passed down from one generation to another. “It sure spoils you for the 9 to 5,” says Guy Hoppen, who has done plenty of salmon seasons in Alaska. He’s the director of the Gig Harbor BoatShop, a former commercial facility in a tight cove bounded by working docks that is now an interpretive center promulgating the art of shipbuilding, partly to make sure salmon boats never get crowded out of the increasingly high-rent harbor. Trained eyes can pick out venerable old fishing vessels like the 1922 Commencement and 1925 Beryl E. among the pleasure boats.
Settled in the 19th century by immigrants from the Adriatic Coast of what is now Croatia, Gig Harbor is a little like Maine without Yankees. The Jerisiches, Dorotiches and other founding families were net fisher folk and ship builders. They stayed close together, founding Gig Harbor’s Roman Catholic St. Nicholas Church, still the starting place for the annual Maritime Gig Festival, highlighted by a blessing of the fleet.
Meanwhile, the peninsula’s forested hinterlands became home to many Scandinavians, who built dairy farms and planted strawberry patches that send their riches to Puget Sound markets.
Gig Harbor was isolated until the building of a bridge across the strait that separates the Olympic Peninsula from Tacoma. Engineered by the same company that gave San Francisco its Golden Gate Bridge, the 5,400-foot span was a wonder when completed in 1940. Thankfully, no one died when it collapsed a scant four months later, leaving Gig Harbor all but water-bound until the completion of a sturdier bridge in 1950, paralleled by another in 2007. You can still see dredged-up chunks of the first bridge’s foundations at the spacious new Harbor History Museum, added to the waterfront in 2010, along with a restored 19th-century one-room schoolhouse, a vintage Thunderbird sailboat hull and exhibitions about languages spoken by Native American Puyallup and Nisqually tribes, the bay’s first residents.
On any given summer weekend there’s likely to be a chowder cook-off, a quilt show or a festival celebrating boats, gardens or wine; vendors at the farmers market offer mandolin lessons along with strawberries and grass-fed beef. The town center is Skansie Brothers Park, where the city is restoring one of 17 historic net sheds that line the waterfront. On open-air film nights folks pile on blankets spread across the lawn to watch Free Willy, Jaws or another maritime classic. -- SS
Read how these towns were selected.
Comments (819)
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You missed Princeton, IN. You have forgotten all the basics. Priceton is a clean, crime free community with good schools and a cost of living that will alow you to go visit your artsy craftsy places when you take a vacation because you'll have enough money left over from the low cost of living.
Posted by Paul Beyerle on February 12,2013 | 12:25 PM
I can't help but think the original photo is from Fairhope, Alabama even though it was not included in your list. You didn't identify that site. Could you, please? Thank you.
Posted by e graham on February 11,2013 | 11:27 AM
Cool.... I'd like to share a soundtrack suited for small towns http://www.theamericanmodern.com/post/42335087342/soundtrack-for-a-small-town. Happy listening!
Posted by Tara on February 5,2013 | 07:56 AM
Taos? It's a filthy place when I was there a few years ago. Garbage everywhere and no one picks anything up. Of course they are artists and picking up garbage is the government's job or something. In Arizona,you see those signs like" The next three miles the Kiwanis Club keeps the highway clean". There are zero near Taos. What a dump.
Posted by John Galt on February 2,2013 | 11:49 AM
I thought this might be a credible list of towns until I saw Beckley, WV. Someone has lost their mind.
Posted by jt on January 30,2013 | 06:49 PM
http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/631*421/Small-Towns-Naples-FL-intro-631.jpg looks like my hometown but not on the list. but now i see in the url it says naples, FL so i guess that's what it is.
Posted by nubwaxer on January 29,2013 | 07:50 PM
this website is awesome
Posted by brittany peterson on January 28,2013 | 01:11 PM
this website is awesome
Posted by brittany peterson on January 28,2013 | 01:11 PM
Perhaps you should have the author check a map of Washington State to locate the Olympic Peninsula. I'm sure the people of Bremerton, Port Orchard, Silverdale, Poulsbo and Kingston will be quite amused to find that they've been moved across the Hood Canal with Gig Harbor to the Olympic Peninsula. Gig Harbor is located on the Kitsap Peninsula. The bridges refered to cross the Tacoma Narrows which separates the Kitsap Peninsula from Tacoma.
Posted by R. Rasmussen on January 17,2013 | 02:39 AM
Morton all the way! Yo dawg, I love me did town!
Posted by Carl Colwell on January 11,2013 | 12:50 AM
I have lived near some of these towns; Great Barrington, Brattleboro, Mill Valley. Most people can not afford to live in them. How about a slide show of affordable small towns?
Posted by Jeff and Yo on January 10,2013 | 03:38 PM
This website has proven very useful in my work. You see, I'm an aspiring author, and my first book Dénûment takes place in a small town. I decided to be realistic and use a real place as the location of my story, but I didn't know any small towns. So while researching small towns I came across your website. I'm pleased to say that because if your website I have decided to make my story take place in Laguna Beach. Thank you. -Catie Westphal
Posted by Catie Westphal on January 9,2013 | 02:09 PM
How Naples, FL made the list is beyond me? This town has no character. It is only for the rich and their employees. Don luke in Bradenton, FL.
Posted by donald luke on January 4,2013 | 03:30 PM
New mexico really haves the best little towns in the world i lived there before i wouldint go back because i love the city and fast living but when i get old i will move back
Posted by Jack on December 25,2012 | 09:51 PM
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