The Most Quirky Small Towns in the United States

Casey, Illinois, was established in 1834. However, it wasn’t until much later that the town began carving out its own niche as a place that houses comically large items. The town is home to a 56-foot-tall rocking chair and a 32-foot-tall pencil, among other things. If there’s ever been a really large object you’ve wanted to see in person, then we have a feeling you can find it in Casey. 

San Luis Obispo, California, has the distinction of being known as the home of what’s probably the largest bubble gum alley in the world. While no one knows for sure how the alley started, there are some theories out there, including that it started out as a graduating class event or that it started as a school rivalry. The alley stretches back at least to the 1950s, but it has and still does divide local opinions. 

Slab City, California, is known for being one of the last lawless places in the U.S., or so the slogan goes. The town is a collection of misfits, hippies, the homeless, and just regular people looking to get away from civilization. The town, which is actually unincorporated, charges $30 a night to stay there, or visitors can bring their own RV. Apparently, police also occasionally patrol the area, meaning it’s not entirely lawless. 

Cottonwood, Idaho, might just be one of the only places in the world where you can stay the night inside a giant dog-shaped hotel. The Dog Park Inn is a hit with children and canines alike, and it was built to pay tribute to some of the weird roadside attractions you can find across the U.S. and on this list. However, visitors will have to book well ahead as the inn is quite busy. 

Probably home to one of America’s most unusual events, Clark, South Dakota’s claim to fame is that it hosts yearly mashed potato wrestling matches. Wrestlers dress up in costumes and face off with rivals in what must be some riveting storylines. The best part is that travelers can partake in the antics as well, which are usually held in a small pool filled with mashed potatoes. 

Legend has it that Scottsboro, Alabama, was actually created out of the frustration of every traveler that has used an airline over the last half-century. Not really. In truth, Scottsboro is known for being the place where the world’s unclaimed luggage ends up. Travelers can even visit the town and bid on lost luggage sight unseen. While we’re pretty sure that most of the lost luggage only contains things like clothes, there have been some notable finds here. 

Fall River, Massachusetts, is home to probably one of the more notorious murders in American history. This is the town where a woman named Lizzie Borden allegedly murdered her parents inside their home. The story is long, but we’ll give you the gist of it. Borden’s parents were murdered with an ax in broad daylight while their Irish maid was still in the home. And despite the evidence against Borden, she was never formally convicted of the crime, which was thought to be a way of getting her parents’ wealth. 

The small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, started out with a population of about 1,000 people before the 1980s, and that number has been shrinking ever since. The reason for this is because the town, or at least the ground underneath it, is literally on fire and has been since a disaster in 1962. That’s when coal reserves buried underneath the town ignited in a mine explosion, killing some 111 miners. 

It doesn’t get much more small-town than Monowi, Nebraska. The town is home to only one resident named Elsie Eiler. The town was home to around 150 people during the 1930s, but that number shrank as people moved out in search of jobs. Eiler’s husband passed away in 2004, making her the town’s sole resident. She now runs the town library and tavern, and she also serves as the town’s mayor. As such, she must pay herself taxes every year, according to Atlas Obscura. 

Seward, Nebraska, claims to contain the world’s largest time capsule. The capsule was started by a man named Harold Davisson, who apparently really liked the year 1975 because he had a 45-ton vault built to house all of the era’s memorabilia. The collection contains around 5,000 objects, including a car built the same year, and it sits below a pyramid structure. However, the town is also known for something else. 

While there’s nothing particularly strange about the town itself, Adams, Tennessee, is home to Bell Witch Cave. You can probably see where we’re going with this. Legend has it that a woman named Kate Batts was part of a land deal gone awry. She eventually cursed the Bell family she had entered into the deal with, and the family claimed to begin seeing strange apparitions near their home after her Batts’ death. 

Whittier, Alaska, is perhaps one of the only (official) towns in the world where all of the residents live together under one roof. Yes, everyone in Whittier lives together in a large cinderblock building that used to be an army barracks. The town is situated at the foot of some mountains and on the shores of Prince William Sound, meaning it endures some pretty intense winter weather. The 14-story tower has an inn, a church, a police station, and a small clinic. 

The small town of Colma, California, has been called the “city of soul,” and for a good reason. Despite only having a population of around 1,200 people, the town can claim to have around 2 million burials and 17 cemeteries. During the 1880s, nearby San Fransisco started to run out of room to bury their dead and eventually decided to hold funerals in Colma, giving the two-square-mile town its huge number of cemeteries. 

Tangier, Virginia, is actually located on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay. It’s here you’ll find one of the oddest accents in America. Due to its isolation, locals sound more like they’re from the U.K. than the continental United States. Linguists who have traveled there to study the accent say that it’s actually a long-forgotten American accent, and they suspect that maybe early colonists and the founding fathers actually sounded similar. 

It might be hard to limit Florida to being known for only one thing, but its senior population would definitely be in contention. However, The Villages aren’t just any retirement home. They have some of the highest rates of STDs in the entire state. That’s right, visitors have spotted the elderly making love on one of its 34 golf courses and probably in a bunch of other places, too. 

This might come as a complete surprise to many, but a canning factory in the town of Alma, Arkansas, could once boast that it produced around 65% of the world’s spinach. Today, the town still celebrates this achievement with a statue and water tower depicting Popeye, the sailor. The town also holds an annual spinach festival, where you can channel your inner Popeye and take part in a spinach-eating contest. 

It was only a matter of time before a town in Florida made it to this list. The town of Miracle Village was founded by a minister named Richard Witherow, and the town is really more of a community. It was established as a place where registered sex offenders could find refuge after they get out of prison. Florida, and many other states, have laws preventing said offenders from living within a certain radius of things like schools, bus stops, libraries, and playgrounds. 

Homosassa island in Florida is actually the result of a scientific experiment. Actually, the entire story of Homosassa island is a bit crazy. The island, situated in the town of Homosassa, used to be nothing more than a small rock outcropping that used to take out unsuspecting boats. Fed up with the rocks, a local developer instructed crew members to “throw some dirt on it.” However, by the time he returned from a trip, they had built up the small outcropping into its own little island.

No, these mummies didn’t come from ancient Egypt. Instead, they were originally two women who were diagnosed with mental disorders and who lived at an asylum in West Virginia. After their deaths, they were embalmed and traveled around the country with P.T. Barnum’s traveling circus. Today, they reside at the Barbour County Historical Museum, where visitors can still view them. If that’s not your thing, then the town is also known for being the site of the U.S. Civil War’s first land battle. 

Another abandoned town, the legend surrounding Dudleytown, Connecticut, reads like something out of a horror story. The town was originally settled in 1738, but it wouldn’t be until 1747 that the town’s namesake family arrived. The stories go that the Dudleys had some run-ins with the plague and royalty back in England, with a member of the family even having his head chopped off. Untimely deaths and people going mad caused residents to leave the town until there was nobody left. 

Kentucky is known for its bourbon and its horses. However, in 2016, Williamstown, Kentucky, became known for having the world’s largest reconstruction of Noah’s Ark. Yes, that Noah’s Ark from the Bible. The giant ark serves as a museum for anyone interested in the flood event described in the Bible. The boat is around 510 feet long and seven stories tall, but we’re not sure if it actually floats or not. 

Hell, Michigan got its start as a mining town that was established in the 1840s. Though it was a popular bootlegging town, it didn’t get its name from any kind of nefarious act. Instead, legend has it that one of the original inhabitants paid local farmers with his own homemade whiskey. This led wives to respond, “he’s gone to hell again,” when asked where their husbands were, which eventually stuck, according to the town’s official website. 

The town of Ferndale, California, is on the U.S. list of historical monuments, and for a good reason. All of the town’s buildings reflect the Victorian-era architecture of the 19th century. The town’s official website boasts that it’s the prettiest small town in the Redwoods region, and it’s hard to argue with that claim. It was founded in 1852 by two brothers and quickly drew in residents looking to strike it rich during the Gold Rush. 

Center, North Dakota, is exactly what it sounds like. The town claims to be located in the exact center of North America. However, amazingly enough, the name Center doesn’t have anything to do with being the center of North America. The town was originally named Center because it was thought to be at the center of its local county. It was only years later that it would be discovered the town was the center of the entire continent. 

Even carnival workers need to take a break sometime. And where else better to take a vacation than in Florida, Gibsonton, Florida, to be exact. A large portion of this town’s residents have or still do work as performers at circuses and carnivals. Though the “human oddities,” as they were once called, are all but gone with the golden age of the American traveling carnivals, this town was founded by a “giant” and his wife. 

Hildale, Utah, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or a denomination of Mormonism as they used to be called. The town is actually their headquarters, and as such, it’s one of the only places in the U.S. where polygamy is still allowed, at least in practice. The church has tried to distance itself from the practice in recent years, and it’s no longer a common practice. 

No list of weird American towns would be complete without mentioning Roswell, New Mexico. This is the sight where an alien was allegedly discovered in 1947. Even though the event has been proven false time and time again, that hasn’t stopped travelers from flocking to the town, and now aliens are big business in the area. The original story made headlines around the country at the time, and it didn’t help that the military played along in an effort to hide that it was just a weather balloon that was conducting experiments. 

It may just be a genius marketing stunt, but the flavor graveyard at Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury, Vermont, is also a sort of outdoor museum for the company’s discontinued flavors. Each tombstone features a short epithet and the years each flavor was in production. Visitors can also visit the local factory for a small taste of the flavors that still live on to this day. 

The town of Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, has around 250 residents, all of which must follow a strict building code so that all of their homes look identical. This is because the town is home to a large number of yogis, who voted in 2001 to instate the law. The style of architecture originates from Hindu yogis and is meant to protect the residents of each building. 

When you think of Santa Claus, the last thing that might come to your mind is a desert town situated in Arizona, but that’s what Santa Clause is. The town was established to take advantage of all the road trippers making their way down the famous Route 66. However, after the interstate was built, tourist dollars quickly dried up, and so did the town’s quirky businesses. 

Nameless, Tennessee is what you get when you just can’t be bothered to think up a new name for your town. The legend goes that when the town applied to get a post office, they left the name section on the application blank, causing the department to give the town the name, Nameless. However, nobody truly knows for certain how the town got its name. Either way, it is unincorporated now, and it has few stores left and no post office. 

There are plenty of ghost towns scattered throughout the U.S., but most are found in the American West. Igloo City is a bit further up north in the state of Alaska. The abandoned town was meant to be a tourist destination, and it hosts a four-story hotel shaped like an igloo. However, the building, which was built in the 1970s, never actually opened to the public because it couldn’t meet the standard building codes at the time. 

What better name for a place that hosts something called Cornhenge than Dublin, Ohio. Okay, maybe naming the place after a town from the U.K. would’ve been better, but it kind of works anyway. These massive corn sculptures were the work of Michael Cochran to honor Sam Frantz. Frantz worked at the University of Ohio and ended up developing seven different types of hybrid corn. 

Yes, you read that town’s name correctly. Burnt Corn is the name of a town in Alabama. The small community got its name after an event during the Creek War of 1813. However, no one is sure if the Native Americans burnt the settlers’ corn or if it was the other way around. Either way, tourists can visit the small town today and take photos of some of the area’s historic buildings. 

Mississippi is known for its musical heritage. The state was home to Elvis Presley and was the birthplace of the blues. However, Clarksdale, Mississippi, can claim to be the town where blues legend Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil. Legend has it that Johnson went to the crossroads of 49 and 61 with an instrument that gave him his otherworldly talent. We’ll let you be the judge of that. 

Another small town that dwindled down to only one resident, PhinDeli Town Buford, Wyoming, was bought by a man named Don Sammons in 1992. However, after his children moved out and his wife passed away, Sammons sold the town to a Vietnamese man who made his fortune in the coffee business. The town was sold for around $900,000, and the coffee magnate now serves his coffee at the local gas station. 

America’s pastime has a long history. However, the little league version of the sport had its first game in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The game took place on June 6, 1939, and saw a team sponsored by Lundy-Lumber take on a team sponsored by Lycoming Dairy. They sure knew how to name something back then, didn’t they? The team sponsored by Lundy-Lumber won 28-8. The town now has a little league museum travelers can visit to learn about the history of the sport. 

This might come as a surprise to some, but the attack on Pearl Harbor wasn’t the only time the Japanese attacked American soil. It was what drew the U.S. into the war, but a balloon attack was launched by Japan shortly after the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. The Japanese launched some 9,000 balloons packed with explosives and hoped that they would drift towards the continental U.S. Around 1,000 eventually reached the country. 

Another relatively large city, Houston, Texas, is home to the National Museum of Funeral History. This peculiar attraction documents the history of funeral services in the U.S. Visitors can learn about the different practices and how they’ve changed over time. The museum also has an extensive collection of coffins and hearses. The museum’s website says that visitors can also learn about presidential funerals, memorials across the country, and the history of mourning photography. 

Yes, Salt Lake City, Utah, isn’t exactly a small town, and we’re sure it’s known for plenty of different things. However, among its many distinctions, it’s also the home of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s first franchise location. The same KFC that can now be found around the world first branched out in this town many states away from Kentucky. Though the original restaurant was demolished, the new one still contains a bunch of memorabilia.