Cyburbia's Best Small Towns: State by State - Nominations (Northern Plains)

[Cardinal]

Many web sites and magazines do an annual "best of" feature, so why not Cyburbia? My thought is to come up with a list of our favorite small towns. One for each state. The only criteria is population, and I will arbitrarily define a small city as under 25,000. As for the rest, maybe you like it for its layout, its amenities, its downtown, or whatever.

This is a call for nominations. Since there are a lot of states I will break it up into regions. The next is the northern plains: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

My nominations:

South Dakota - Hot Springs, sandstone buildings lining the river, the VA on the hill, and oh yeah, the hot spring.

Iowa - Algoma. Most of Iowa gives of a conservative, unimaginative vibe. Algoma is different, seeming almost… progressive.

[stroskey]

Many web sites and magazines do an annual "best of" feature, so why not Cyburbia? My thought is to come up with a list of our favorite small towns. One for each state. The only criteria is population, and I will arbitrarily define a small city as under 25,000. As for the rest, maybe you like it for its layout, its amenities, its downtown, or whatever.

This is a call for nominations. Since there are a lot of states I will break it up into regions. The next is the northern plains: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

My nominations:

South Dakota - Hot Springs, sandstone buildings lining the river, the VA on the hill, and oh yeah, the hot spring.

Iowa - Algoma. Most of Iowa gives of a conservative, unimaginative vibe. Algoma is different, seeming almost… progressive.

It's Algona, IA - a since-demolished WWII POW camp was there. It's funny people think of Iowa as conservative but they have gay marriage before CA. From my experiences in Iowa (except the smallest of towns) they are socially tolerant yet fiscally conservative.

South Dakota - Lead - interesting geography - built on a steep hill surrounded my mines.

Iowa - Lansing and the northeast quarter - beautiful scenery with rolling hills, cliffs, and the Mississippi River nearby.

Minnesota - Grand Marais - since this is for small towns only (otherwise Duluth). On Lake Superior, very interesting geography for MN, gorgeous color change in the fall.

North Dakota - Devil's Lake - not as pretty as some others but nice small town on a lake in a state without many of either.

[beach_bum]

Kearney, NE

Nebraska City, NE