The Blog

What’s so great about small towns in America? If you ever had any doubt about the beauty of communities with fewer than 20,000 residents, check out the top-10 or top-20 lists published by major media this spring. Smithsonian magazine, USA Today, and Garden & Gun magazine all sing the praises of tiny hamlets around the country, with USA Today and Garden & Gun focusing exclusively on the South. Garden & Gun lets in a couple of places with a few more than 20,000 folks, but they make up for it by including Round Top, Texas (population 93), so I guess it evens out.

USA Today invited readers to vote for the best small town in its top-20 list. And the winner, announced May 29, is—drum roll, please—Natchitoches, Louisiana. With a population of 18, 275, Natchitoches is the oldest town in the state. People who visit or live there praise it for its annual events that feature traditional cultures such as Native American and Creole, music including jazz and zydeco, and favorite foods such as Louisiana barbecue.

Rather than ranking members of its group, Smithsonian suggests readers think of the list as a “menu with something for every taste.” I like that approach, because although the towns named by all three publications have characteristics in common, each has its own flavor and charm. And they’re almost all different—Middleburg, Virginia is the only town that appears on more than one list.

I found these lists particularly interesting because I love small towns. I grew up in Elkin, North Carolina (population 4,016), and although I’ve spent most of my life in city suburbs, I have never lost my fondness for the atmosphere and workings of a small town. You can’t beat the friendliness of the neighbors and merchants or the comforting familiarity of the quiet residential areas and easy-to-navigate main streets. Small-town dwellers also tend to have powerful enthusiasm for improving and protecting their town, backed by a determination that I think comes from knowing if they don’t do it, nobody will.

For my novel Surface and Shadow, I created a fictitious small town called Tanner, North Carolina, and put my characters in it because I wanted them to struggle for their goals amid the help and hindrance of the town’s people and culture. The same story could not take place in a city or a rural area. The same forces, suspicions, and loyalties would not be at play. I also wouldn’t have had the same down-home retail establishments and unpretentious, yet clever, individuals.

Fictitious or real, each small town can be a world unto itself. While looking through the recent lists of the best small towns, I couldn’t resist seeing if articles about the towns I know match my impressions. Eureka Springs, Arkansas, was exactly what I would have written. My husband and I spent one of our anniversaries there, and I can still see the steep, winding streets, and quaint Victorian buildings. USA Today notes the town’s “a haven for lovers of Victorian architecture as well as those with a passion for the paranormal.” I remember being disappointed we didn’t get to stay in the most haunted hotel.

In its article about Franklin, Tennessee, where my sister-in-law used to live, Garden & Gun applauds the “forward-thinking folks who gave Franklin a future, beginning with the revitalization of Main Street,” (remember that “if we don’t do it” spirit) and who worked to preserve the site of the “Battle of Franklin—one of the Civil War’s bloodiest.” I agree the historic part of the town is notable, and I was glad to see G&G also mentions my favorite local place, the Franklin Antique Mall.

I can’t close this post without saying that although my hometown is not included in the three current lists, Elkin was named one of Budget Travel’s 10 coolest small towns in 2014.

What’s your favorite small town? Do you live there or love to visit?

Surface and Shadow will be released by Pen-L Publishing in 2016

Photo © Arinahabich08|Dreamstime.com—Main Street Photo