Missouri Place Earns Spot Among America's Best Small Cities

Don't get me wrong. This a nice national shoutout, but I also have a question. One of the best small cities to visit in America is in Missouri. The only issue is it isn't really that small.

There's a very pleasant new ranking of the top 50 small cities to visit in America that was just shared by Cheapism. It's full of lots of charming places around America including several that I've had the chance to visit in my travels. Their choice for Missouri is...interesting. It features one of the most famous views in the state.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that this is Jefferson City, Missouri. It's apparently one of the top "small" towns in America. The question is what qualifies as a small town to you? According to Wikipedia, the population of Jefferson City topped 43,000 during the last census. Perhaps I'm just nitpicking, but a small town (IMHO) is a place with less than 10,000. I'll confess that I was born in raised in a Missouri town that had a population of over 10,000, but I didn't consider my birthplace as a small town either.

Here's the thing. I like Jefferson City other than the time that I got flattened on a high school field there playing football a few decades ago. There are a lot of things to do. It's in the middle of the state with nearly equal driving distances to both Kansas City and St. Louis. It's also not far from fun Lake of the Ozarks things to do. It's worth a visit, but doesn't fall into a small towns category for me.