24 U.S. cities and towns with food & drink in their names

Located on Wisconsin’s Fox River is the city of Appleton, which straddles the borders of Calumet, Outagamie, and Winnebago Counties. It’s mostly known for being Wisconsin’s sixth-largest city — boasting a population of about 75,000 residents — but we’ll always remember it for a different reason: it’s where Harry Houdini grew up. In fact, he lived on Appleton Street in Appleton, and today there’s a plaza that bears his name in that location.

Bean Station, Tennessee, is named after pioneer William Bean, who founded it as a frontier outpost with the famous Daniel Boone. Situated on the crossroads of Boone's Wilderness Road and the Great Indian Warpath, Bean Station is also notable because it was completely moved in the 1940s after the original town site was intentionally flooded during the construction of the Cherokee Dam. 

During the Gold Rush of the late 1800s, some prospectors ended up in the area that is now located along the Alaska/Yukon border, and they decided to found a town. Due to the area’s prevalence of ptarmigan, a midsize game bird that many miners ate in order to survive, the name “Ptarmigan” was suggested for the new community. However, the residents couldn’t agree on the precise spelling and instead named the town “Chicken.” Yes, that is actually a true story.

Another tasty Florida location is Cocoa Beach, which isn’t just the name of a beach, but an entire city in Brevard County. It’s home to the greatest surfer of all time, Kelly Slater, as well as the largest surf shop in the world. Cocoa Beach also shares a border with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station!

Florida contains more than its fair share of food and drink names, including Coconut Creek, a city of nearly 60,000 residents located about 40 miles north of Miami. (Miami has its own reference to this fruit: the neighborhood of Coconut Grove.) Coconut Creek is known as “The Butterfly Capital of the World” in part because it is home to the largest butterfly aviary on Earth.

In Cookietown, Oklahoma, the streets are paved with dough, the fire hydrants are chocolate chips, and the air smells like the entire place is fresh from the oven. Okay, not really. According to locals, the town of fewer than ten people once had a merchant who handed out cookies to people passing through, a child once remarked that he never wanted to leave “Cookietown,” and the name stuck.

Wild cranberries grow naturally in Pennsylvania, so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the state has two places with cranberries in the name: Cranberry and Cranberry Township, which are located in the counties of Venango and Butler, respectively. Cranberry Township, a Pittsburgh suburb, is the larger of the two and is best known as the home of the Westinghouse Electric Company headquarters and the Pittsburgh Penguins practice facility, which is named after NHL great Mario Lemieux. 

We’ve seen the signs for Dumfries while driving on I-95 through Virginia but never knew anything about the town. As it turns out, Dumfries is named after Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the birthplace of Dumfries founder John Graham. Dumfries is the oldest continuously chartered town in Virginia, and its location on the Quantico Creek (which connects to the Potomac River) made it an incredibly popular port town that rivaled the likes of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia back in the 18th century.

When pioneers in the 1800s were traveling from the border town of Natchez, Mississippi, to the seaside city of Mobile, Alabama, they often stopped at the halfway point for a cup of coffee from L. N. Davis’ inn and market. It wasn’t just the location that made the town a good place to stop; the coffee was referred to as "the best hot coffee around,” as it was brewed from a delicious blend of New Orleans beans, spring water, and molasses drippings. The inn closed long ago, but the name has stuck around ever since.

Only a couple dozen people live in the small community of Oatmeal, Texas, but the population boils over during the annual Oatmeal Festival, which is celebrated in collaboration with the nearby town of Bertram. Oatmeal wasn’t invented in Oatmeal — instead, the name is likely a nod to the community’s first gristmill owner, who was named Othneil, or a translation of the German name Habermill, which belonged to one of the first families to settle there.

Take I-26 East from the South Carolina capital city of Columbia, and in fewer than 40 miles, you’ll arrive in Orangeburg. Orangeburg was named in honor of William IV, Prince of Orange (the husband of England’s Princess Anne, daughter of George II), and is the home of South Carolina State University and Claflin University.

Nestled on the North Shore of New York’s Long Island is the hamlet of Oyster Bay. References to Oyster Bay date back to at least the 1600s, but the most important historical aspect of the community might be that Theodore Roosevelt spent much time there as both a child and an adult, including during his terms as governor and president. The town has since paid tribute to him by establishing the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center, and numerous sculptures and other works of art.

Peachtree City sounds like it should be a nickname for Atlanta, but it’s actually a different place about 30 miles south of Georgia’s capital. Peachtree City boasts the largest population in all of Fayette County (39,000 residents) and was often used as a backdrop for episodes of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” It’s also home to three beautiful lakes: Lake Peachtree, Lake Kedron, and Lake McIntosh.

Pie Town is a very small community of fewer than 100 people situated off Highway 60 in New Mexico, but it’s not in the middle of nowhere. It is located just north of Gila National Forest, just west of the Very Long Baseline Array of enormous radio telescopes. It’s accessible via the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, and is home to The Pie Town Annual Pie Festival, which attracts more than 1,000 attendees annually.

Have you ever seen a bag of Popcorn Indiana popcorn at the grocery store? Although this brand began in the Northeast and is now owned by Eagle Foods of Columbus, Ohio, it was specifically named for the town of Popcorn, Indiana, in order to embody a small-town feel. It’s not surprising that the popcorn manufacturer isn’t actually located in Popcorn, as the population of the small community is only a few dozen people and there likely wouldn’t be enough residents to staff a headquarters!

Blink and you’ll miss the small stretch of territory in South Dakota known as Potato Creek, which hasn’t even had a post office in more than 60 years. It’s located in the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is the area south of Badlands National Park. It’s also just up the road from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Veterans' Cemetery in Kyle, South Dakota.

Midway between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, is a beach community called Rye, New Hampshire. Two-thirds of the town is wetland or marsh, but Rye also owns the longest stretch of coastline in the state and four of the nine islands known as the Isles of Shoals. About 5,500 people call Rye home, but the population fluctuates significantly based on the season.

The oldest community on Cape Cod is the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts, which was founded in 1637 and incorporated two years later. Historically a hub for glass-making and colloquially known as “Glass Town,” Sandwich is now home to the Sandwich Glass Museum as well as the Dexter Grist Mill and water wheel, Hoxie House, and other sites of cultural and historical interest.

Sugar Land, Texas, is likely one of the better-known locations in this list. The Houston suburb is home to more than 111,000 people as well as the Imperial Sugar Company, Minute Maid, CVR Energy, Western Airways, and numerous other major organizations, including the Sugar Land Space Cowboys Minor League Baseball team, a Houston Astros Triple-A affiliate formerly known as the Sugar Land Skeeters.

Two thousand people reside in Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place (CDP) located just west of Mt. Airy. Unlike some of the other small towns in this list, Toast does, in fact, have its own post office…although it shares its zip code with Mt. Airy.

If you’re looking for an authentic Old West experience — or the closest thing you can get to it in the 21st century — look no further than Tortilla Flat, Arizona. The last surviving stagecoach stop along the Historic Apache Trail, Tortilla Flat (population: 6) has a number of attractions, including the Superstition Restaurant & Saloon, the Country Store & Ice Cream Shop (home of the famous prickly pear gelato), and a mercantile & gift shop, in addition to numerous nearby trails.

Located in Hall County, Texas, the small town of Turkey only has about 300 residents. One former resident is especially celebrated: Bob Willis, who is referred to as the father of Western swing music. Willis wasn’t actually born in Turkey but came of age there during the 1920s. Turkey also made the news in 2011 when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) petitioned the town to change its name to “Tofurkey.” The stunt garnered the intended publicity for the animal rights organization, but the request was ultimately unsuccessful.

There’s not much of a consensus on how Vinegar Bend, Alabama, got its name — and there aren’t a lot of people to ask, as fewer than 200 people call the community home. Its most notable resident was Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, a two-time MLB All-Star who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and New York Mets between 1952 and 1962, and was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the state of North Carolina. The person who first gave “Vinegar Bend” his nickname? Legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray. 

Just east of the San Francisco Bay Area is the city of Walnut Creek, California. First incorporated in 1914, Walnut Creek has grown into a city of 70,000 people and has had many famous residents. Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Randy Johnson was born in Walnut Creek, as was supermodel Christy Turlington and musician Kyle Gass, who is a member of the comedic rock duo Tenacious D that’s not named Jack Black. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich also once called Walnut Creek home, as did NBA superstar Stephen Curry.