The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013
From the blues to the big top, we’ve picked the most intriguing small towns to enjoy arts and smarts
- By Susan Spano
- Smithsonian magazine, April 2013
(© Narayan Mahon)
Kids didn’t bat an eye when they saw elephants bathing in the Baraboo River: Ringling Bros. once made its headquarters in Baraboo. By the turn of the last century, it took 100 railroad cars to transport the circus’ 1,500 employees, animals, gear and opulently decorated parade wagons. When it bought out Barnum & Bailey in 1916, it had every right to call itself “the greatest show on earth.”
Clowns, trapeze artists and Vanna the baboon dazzle at the Circus World Museum, a monument to how the traveling show introduced frontier towns to art, music, exotic animals and marvels like electric lights. The masterfully restored wagons and lithographic ads are an Aladdin’s cave of American folk art.
“Nothing is too good for Baraboo,” Albrecht Ringling, oldest of the seven Ringling brothers who grew up in town, said while gilt was being applied to columns in a theater he built and artists were painting a French Baroque mural on the fire curtain. “The Al” opened in 1915, though vaudeville has yielded to concerts, musicals and talkies accompanied by a 1928 Barton organ.
You can’t go to this durable Midwestern town without experiencing powerful moments of déjà vu that emerge from the collective unconsciousness of America. On the lawn of the historic courthouse, folks gather on summer nights, kids in jammies, for concerts and movies. Adjacent to the town square are a handsome 1903 public library, galleries, antiques shops, German bakeries and two bookshops. (The Village Booksmith holds bring-your-own-supper showings of “Downton Abbey” in the uncut British version.)
Two big parades every year show off wagons from Circus World, marching bands and belly dancing. “That’s always controversial,” says Greg DeSanto, executive director of Baraboo’s International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center.
North of town, the Baraboo/Sauk County branch of the University of Wisconsin—“Boo U”— reaches into the community with concerts, plays, lectures and exhibitions.
The nearby Baraboo Hills offer naturalists and geologists textbook terrain scoured by ancient glaciers, later the meeting place of Midwestern forest and prairie. This landscape inspired the first generation of American conservationists, beginning with John Muir, raised in nearby Portage.
In 1973 a pair of Cornell University students landed at a Baraboo Hills horse farm, now home to the International Crane Foundation. Walking trails on the campus, where all 15 extant crane species are bred and studied—including the extremely rare whooping crane—bring home the preciousness of these critically endangered birds. To hear them bugle in unison is magic.
Aldo Leopold sometimes heard cranes on the abandoned farm by the Wisconsin River where he watched the seasons turn. He read the story of man’s relationship with nature in the rings of a tree he was forced to fell—the “good oak” described in A Sand County Almanac, a bible of the American conservation movement. At the Leopold Center, about 15 miles northeast of Baraboo, you can see Aldo’s shack, walk through groves of pine he planted and remember a visionary who, by rights, gets the last word.
“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words.”
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Comments (76)
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I couldn't agree more with your decision to put Petoskey on the list of summer "go to" places. I started vacationing there in 1988. I rented a place in Bay View for twelve years and knew it was where I wanted (and needed) to spend my summers! My husband surprised me by putting in an offer on a cottage in Bay View in 1999. The rest is history.... I will be packing my bags next week for my annual pilgrimage north! Thanks for recognizing the beauty of northern Michigan. Jane Austin
Posted by Jane Austin on May 10,2013 | 12:52 PM
Thank you for that great recognition. My book won the 2011 State History Award "Bay View, an American Idea" covers the close relationship of Bay View and the Hemingway family. Hemingway's mother a fine singer was deeply involved in the women's movement in Chicago and many of the women spoke in Bay View. His sisters both fine musicians performed on the Bay View stage - one a harpist and the other a violist. His aunt was a nationally known children's story tell who taught in Bay View.His brother in law was the grand nephew of John M.Hall the creator of the Bay View Assembly reading circle and magazine. Sterling met Marcelline in Bay View while she was staying at the home of Trumbull White. The family were close friends of Bay View assembly director Trumbull White who was a nationally known editor, writer, and war correspondent. Hemingway saught advice from him as a writer and the first thing Hemingway did was to take off to war.
Posted by Mary Jane Doerr on May 10,2013 | 09:17 AM
I agree. Fairfield, Ia is a most unique city. Surely a farm town but with an amazing quality of life not to be found elsewhere. J Las Vegas, Nv
Posted by Janice W on May 2,2013 | 05:43 PM
Fairfield is not only #7 small town to visit, it is one of the very best to live in. Homes are a bargain from 3 bedrooms under $100,000 to a 15 acre 8000 sq.. feet home with lake and barn for horses for under $600,000. Most everything seems unbelievably inexpensive.
Posted by Chet Swanson on April 22,2013 | 10:15 PM
Naples, Fl was on thr 2012 list and should have made this one. Great West Coast of Florida town for class, art, shopping, boating, beaches, golf,tennis, 3rd street, 5th ave, great dining, etc. Not just a place for winter snow-birds. Been everywhere and this is where I picked for home-sweet-home. Some may think a little high toned and up-erty? Well thats all great with us!!
Posted by Andy on April 19,2013 | 09:34 PM
Wyoming has many great small towns !!
Posted by Mary Link on April 18,2013 | 03:06 PM
MOST ANNOYING HAVING TO CLICK THRU ALL JUST TO SEE IF A CERTAIN TOWN WAS ON THE LIST. I FINALLY QUIT AT #5.
Posted by LARRY NELSON on April 12,2013 | 12:28 AM
Why not do something a little closer to home you know like Manassas/Bullrun or Lexington
Posted by Joey on April 11,2013 | 09:40 PM
Great article! Author Susan Spano is a college classmate, her travel stories are always interesting!
Posted by Eileen Murray on April 10,2013 | 07:11 PM
I, for one, didn't need confirmation of something I already knew: that Gettysburg is the best small town travel site in America. (But I'm glad it has been recognized in the Smithsonian Mag as well.) Gettysburg has something for everyone and I feel it's safe to say I can't think of anyone I know that would not enjoy a trip there. I love it there so much that I've seriously thought of packing up and moving to the area - leaving friends and family behind.
Posted by Chris Shelton on April 10,2013 | 03:44 PM
How I can get a tour?
Posted by methu on April 10,2013 | 02:20 PM
We love Gettysburg! So happy that the Smithsonian acknowleged this great town. Just a tip - Hauser Estate Winery, is our favorite.
Posted by Abby White on April 9,2013 | 12:43 PM
I grew up in cleveland and was elated to see the article
Posted by Gayle O'Quinn on April 7,2013 | 02:05 PM
unnecessarily unwieldy to look through cool idea, horrible format. UP YO GAME SMITHSONIAN
Posted by dpl on April 4,2013 | 09:35 PM
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