Iowa Town In Running For “America’s Favorite Small Town”

One town in Iowa is getting quite the recognition.

Out of all of the small towns in America, even in the Midwest alone, there's one in Iowa's that's standing out.

According to KTIV, Le Mars is in the running among other American towns to be crowned "America's Favorite Small Town" (which includes towns with a population less than 250,000).

The winner will get a feature in Parade Magazine in the spring, a 'Favorite Small Town in America' badge, and a 4th of July party.

Le Mars is doing pretty well in the competition at the moment, ranking 3rd overall behind Rayne, Louisiana and Seguin, Texas.

Kristen Heimgartner, Executive Director of the Hometown Le Mars Heritage Foundation, told the outlet:

I think Le Mars just has this sense of community pride where we support our small businesses and embrace our culture of being the ice cream capital of the world. It’s all about community pride and rallying the people in communities to vote for their favorite small town, and it should be Le Mars.

You can vote for Le Mars on Parade's competition website. State winners will be announced June 1st, while the national winner will be announced on June 12th.

Le Mars was designated as the official "Ice Cream Capitol of the World" in 1994. They are the home of Wells Enterprises, Inc., which is the parent company of Blue Bunny Ice Cream, since the company was founded in 1913.

As of the 2020 census, the population in Le Mars was about 10,571.