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
At the Chinati Foundation in Marfa Texas. (Alyssa Banta)
With mock couture, edgy movies and ironic motels, it’s no cow town.
It’s just a flyspeck in the flat, hot, dusty cattle country of southwest Texas—closer to Chihuahua than Manhattan. But it’s cooking, thanks to an influx of creative types from way downtown: filmmakers like the Coen brothers, who shot No Country for Old Men in Marfa (pop. 1,900), indie rock bands and others who have brought such outré installations as Prada Marfa, a faux couture shop in the middle of nowhere by the artists Elmgreen and Dragset. Cultural camp followers arrived on their heels to open galleries, bookstores, gourmet food trucks and lodgings (in a historic Pueblo-Deco hotel and vintage trailer park called El Cosmico). It may have all started when people first noticed the Marfa Mystery Lights, an optical phenomenon popularly attributed to UFOs and celebrated with parades, battling bands and exhibitions every Labor Day weekend. Or in the early ’70s when New York artist Donald Judd landed in Marfa to plant his massive minimalist sculptures on a decommissioned military camp outside town, the core of the collection now at the Donald Judd and Chinati foundations. These days—move over Austin—an Our Town grant from the NEA is helping Marfa’s not-for-profit Ballroom Foundation create the Drive-In, an open-air art space designed by the cutting-edge New York architectural firm MOS. -- SS
Read how these towns were selected.
Comments (819)
+ View All Comments
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
+ View All Comments