Counties with only one incorporated city

[roadman65]

Of course we have both Philadelphia and San Francisco that are coextensive with the county they both are in, but how many counties (or Parishes for those in La) have only one incorporated city that is not occupying the  entire county.

I noticed that in GA, the state's largest county by land only has Waycross as its sole municipality.  How many others are there?

[Max Rockatansky]

Sonora is the only incorporated City in Tuolumne County in California.  There are a ton of counties out west that have county seats that aren't even incorporated.  Mariposa County comes to mind as not having any incorporated places with the county seat being Mariposa. 

[US 89]

In Utah, Daggett and Morgan County only have one incorporated place, which is the county seat.

There are also counties like Nye County, Nevada that don't have any incorporated places at all. The county seat of Nye County is Tonopah, which is a CDP and an unincorporated town.

[Max Rockatansky]

There are also counties like Nye County, Nevada that don't have any incorporated places at all. The county seat of Nye County is Tonopah, which is a CDP and an unincorporated town.

Esmeralda County is in the some boat with Goldfield not being incorporated.

[bing101]

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-10-30/news/mn-3650_1_city-and-sacramento-county

Sacramento City and Sacramento county back in the 1990's talked about forming a city/county consolidation similar to San Francisco but that got killed off at the ballot box.

[index]

Chowan County, NC has Edenton, Gates County has Gatesville, and Tyrrell County has Columbia. While they are incorporated with the status of "town", in North Carolina, there is no legal distinction between towns or cities here. For all intents and purposes, they're the same thing. I've only listed some, there's probably more counties here with this distinction.

[Flint1979]

For Michigan,

Alcona County
Alger County
Alpena County
Barry County
Benzie County
Cheboygan County
Chippewa County
Crawford County
Grand Traverse County
Isabella County
Jackson County
Manistee County
Mecosta County
Montmorency County
Oceana County
Otsego County
Schoolcraft County

Counties with no cities:
Antrim County
Baraga County
Kalkaska County
Keweenaw County
Lake County
Leelanau County
Luce County
Ontonagon County
Oscoda County
Roscommon County

A lot of these counties have villages but in Michigan a village is part of a township.

[Desert Man]

Alpine and Inyno counties in CA on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and the CA-NV state line. Markleeville (Alpine) and Bishop (Inyo) are county seats. In between is Mono county, it has two cities: a county seat in Bridgeport and the town of Mammoth Lakes.

[Max Rockatansky]

Alpine and Inyno counties in CA on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and the CA-NV state line. Markleeville (Alpine) and Bishop (Inyo) are county seats. In between is Mono county, it has two cities: a county seat in Bridgeport and the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Actually in Mono County the only incorporated place is Mammoth and not Bridgeport.  Markleeville isn't incorporated either.

[Desert Man]

Alpine and Inyno counties in CA on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and the CA-NV state line. Markleeville (Alpine) and Bishop (Inyo) are county seats. In between is Mono county, it has two cities: a county seat in Bridgeport and the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Actually in Mono County the only incorporated place is Mammoth and not Bridgeport.  Markleeville isn't incorporated either.

Thanks for the heads up, is Bishop the county seat? My Thomas Bros. guide California shown me inaccurate depictions of Markleeville and Bridgeport. I think it's from 1990. The newer ones shown incorporated cities in yellow (shoulda checked online), sorry.

[Max Rockatansky]

Alpine and Inyno counties in CA on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and the CA-NV state line. Markleeville (Alpine) and Bishop (Inyo) are county seats. In between is Mono county, it has two cities: a county seat in Bridgeport and the town of Mammoth Lakes.

Actually in Mono County the only incorporated place is Mammoth and not Bridgeport.  Markleeville isn't incorporated either.

Thanks for the heads up, is Bishop the county seat? My Thomas Bros. guide California shown me inaccurate depictions of Markleeville and Bridgeport. I think it's from 1990. The newer ones shown incorporated cities in yellow (shoulda checked online), sorry.

Actually its Independence that is the seat and Bishop is the only city.

[Rothman]

Barnstable, MA (City of Barnstable)
Dukes, MA has no city at all.
Franklin, MA (City of Greenfield)
Nantucket, MA has no city at all

Would have guessed Hampshire, too, but Easthampton is a city along with Northampton.

[Rothman]

New York City encompasses five counties.

Broome, NY:  Binghamton
Cayuga, NY: Auburn
Chemung, NY: Elmira
Chenango, NY: Norwich
Clinton, NY: Plattsburgh
Columbia, NY: Hudson
Cortland, NY: Cortland
Genesee, NY: Batavia
Herkimer, NY: Little Falls
Jefferson, NY: Watertown
Madison, NY: Oneida
Monroe, NY: Rochester
Montgomery, NY: Amsterdam
Onondaga, NY: Syracuse
Otsego, NY: Oneonta
Schenectady, NY: Schenectady
Seneca: Geneva (sort of cheating, since also in Ontario County)
Saint Lawrence, NY: Ogdensburg
Tompkins, NY: Ithaca
Ulster, NY: Kingston
Warren, NY: Glens Falls

No cities in Allegany, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Lewis, Livingston, Orleans, Putnam, Rockland, Schoharie, Schuyler, Suffolk, Sullivan, Tioga, Washington, Wayne, Wyoming or Yates Counties.

(Someone else can check my work )

[inkyatari]

For Michigan,

Roscommon County

Really?  I did not know this.

[1995hoo]

In Virginia, cities are independent of counties, so we have no counties with one city. We do have incorporated towns, which are part of the surrounding counties and are more or less the equivalent of what most other states would call a city. As far as I know, the following are the counties with one town (or no towns), with the town (if any) listed in parentheses:

Albemarle County (Scottsville)
Amelia County (none)
Amherst County (none)
Arlington County (none, but the county is more like a city anyway)
Bath County (none)
Bland County (none)
Buckingham County (Dillwyn)
Charles City County (none)
Chesterfield County (none)
Craig County (New Castle)
Culpeper County (Culpeper)
Cumberland County (Farmville)
Dinwiddie County (McKenney)
Essex County (Tappahannock)
Floyd County (Floyd)
Gloucester County (none)
Goochland County (none)
Greene County (Stanardsville)
Greensville County (Jarratt)
Hanover County (Ashland)
Henrico County (none, although it's a pretty urbanized area near Richmond)
Henry County (Ridgeway)
Highland County (Monterey)
James City County (none)
King and Queen County (none)
King George County (none)
King William County (West Point)
Madison County (Madison)
Mathews County (none)
Middlesex County (Urbanna)
Nelson County (none)
New Kent County (none)
Northumberland County (Kilmarnock)
Patrick County (Stuart)
Powhatan County (none)
Prince George County (none)
Richmond County (Warsaw)
Roanoke County (Vinton)
Spotsylvania County (none)
Stafford County (none)
Warren County (Front Royal)
York County (none)

Some of these counties have their county seats in the towns; others have them in unincorporated places (York County's is in unincorporated Yorktown, for example). It's also not unusual for a county seat to be located in an adjacent independent city rather than in a town that's part of the county–for example, the Albemarle County seat is in the independent city of Charlottesville, which is surrounded by Albemarle County. Sometimes a county with no towns will be adjacent to one or more independent cities, such as Arlington County, which is adjacent to the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church (as well as Fairfax County).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Minnesota:
Cook (Grand Marais)

[webny99]

(Someone else can check my work )

I don't see any errors, but I wonder if we are misinterpreting the spirit of the thread. It seems like the OP wants single cities that comprise an entire county... or at least cities that are the sole incorporated entity in their respective county.

The problem is that everything in New York is incorporated. As a general rule, it's kind of hard to apply what the OP is asking for to the Northeast.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think OP is excluding city-counties like Denver, SF, and St. Louis.

[NWI_Irish96]

Indiana has two levels of incorporated places--cities and towns.  Going strictly by the use of the word city, the majority of counties have exactly one:
Bartholomew (Columbus)
Boone (Lebanon)
Cass (Logansport)
Clay (Brazil)
Clinton (Frankfort)
Decatur (Greensburg)
Delaware (Muncie)
Fayette (Connersville)
Floyd (New Albany)
Franklin (Batesville)
Fulton (Rochester)
Henry (New Castle)
Howard (Kokomo)
Huntington (Huntington)
Jackson (Seymour)
Jasper (Rensselaer)
Jefferson (Madison)
Kosciusko (Warsaw)
Marshall (Plymouth)
Martin (Loogootee)
Peru (Miami)
Monroe (Bloomington)
Crawfordsville (Montgomery)
Morgan (Martinsville)
Ohio (Rising Sun)
Pike (Petersburg)
Posey (Mount Vernon)
Putnam (Greencastle)
Ripley (Batesville)
Rush (Rushville)
Shelby (Shelbyville)
Spencer (Rockport)
Starke (Knox)
Steuben (Angola)
Sullivan (Sullivan)
Vanderburgh (Evansville)
Vermillion (Clinton)
Vigo (Terre Haute)
Wabash (Wabash)
Warrick (Boonville)
Washington (Salem)
Wayne (Richmond)
Wells (Bluffton)
White (Monticello)
Whitley (Columbia City)

[briantroutman]

I don't see any errors, but I wonder if we are misinterpreting the spirit of the thread. It seems like the OP wants single cities that comprise an entire county... or at least cities that are the sole incorporated entity in their respective county.

Right–although I don't think the OP is necessarily for the former (city encompasses the entire county) but rather the latter (city is the only incorporated municipality in the county).

Pennsylvania is one of those states where all territory is incorporated in some form (city, borough, or township), so Philadelphia is the only example where a county contains only one incorporated municipality.

Now if we adhere strictly to the word "city" , there are many examples, many of them being the county seat and the center of business and cultural activity in their respective counties: Harrisburg in Dauphin County, Lancaster in Lancaster County, Williamsport in Lycoming County, and many others. But each of those counties is packed with other incorporated boroughs and townships, and I don't think they're quite what the OP had in mind.

[1995hoo]

Right–although I don't think the OP is necessarily for the former (city encompasses the entire county) but rather the latter (city is the only incorporated municipality in the county).

....

The bolded interpretation is surely correct:

Of course we have both Philadelphia and San Francisco that are coextensive with the county they both are in, but how many counties (or Parishes for those in La) have only one incorporated city that is not occupying the  entire county.

....

Obviously in my reply above I placed more significance on the word "incorporated" than on the word "city" because of the specific way Virginia local government law works, but I think my response reflects the OP's clear intent.

[Brandon]

Of the 102 counties in Illinois, not a single one lacks a municipality, and all of them have at least two or more municipalities.

[Eth]

I'm far too lazy to check this for the entire state of Georgia, but I can think of two within metro Atlanta: Dawson County contains only Dawsonville, and Rockdale County houses only Conyers.

[hbelkins]

A bunch in Kentucky. I'd wager that most of the state's rural counties only have one incorporated city.

In my area -- Lee, Wolfe, Menifee, Morgan, Magoffin, Breathitt, Owsley, Clay, Elliott and Leslie are on the list.

[Flint1979]

For Michigan,

Roscommon County

Really?  I did not know this.

Roscommon is a village it's in Higgins Township.
Houghton Lake, Prudenville and St. Helen's are all Census-designated places.
Higgins Lake is an unincorporated community.