Your town - what started there that is known nationwide?

[mcdonaat]

I can proudly claim Monroe, Louisiana as the town that I call home. We have two nationally known companies that started here - Delta Air Lines, which started here and, until 1999, held its' annual shareholders meeting in the city; and Centurylink, who owns the naming rights to a few stadiums and is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the country. Centurylink actually started out in Oak Ridge, about twenty minutes' drive down one of the most scenic routes out of Monroe, but moved here and has the corporate headquarters out on US 165 North.

I would also like to mention that we are home to the second municipal railway (streetcar) system in the USA (Seattle was before us by a month)!

Any other famous companies that your town can say you started? Please leave out NYC, Los Angeles, etc - these big towns would fill up a page quickly!

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma City has, so far, given us Hobby Lobby and Sonic.

Norman is probably only known nationwide for the football team.

[briantroutman]

If people know my childhood hometown–Williamsport, PA–at all, it's as the birthplace of Little League Baseball and the home of the league's annual World Series. LLB is the kind of underhanded, money-grubbing organization about which a Roger and Me-style documentary could (and should) be made, but that's another matter.

As to my adopted home base, I assume we'll put S.F. in the same category as N.Y. and L.A.

[hotdogPi]

The town I live in had mills, but some adjacent towns are more famous (for the same reason).

One town away: Lawrence MA.

Two towns away: Lowell MA.

[mukade]

Kokomo, Indiana (area) is where I live, but not where I am from. It is known as the city of firsts, and has a lot of inventions for a smaller town.

- America's First Car (1894)
- First Pneumatic Rubber Tire
- First Aluminum Casting
- First Carburetor
- First Stellite Cobalt-based Alloy (1906)
- First Stainless Steel (1912)
- First American Howitzer Shell (1918)
- First Aerial Bomb with Fins (1918)
- First Mechanical Corn Picker
- First Dirilyte Golden Hued Tableware
- First Canned Tomato Juice
- First Push-Button Car Radio (1938)
- First All Metal Life Boats and Rafts
- First Signal-Seeking Car Radio (1947)
- First All Transistor Car Radio (1957)
- First Ponderosa Steak House
- First McDonald's Diner (a concept that lasted only a few years)

Greater Kokomo Convention & Visitors Bureau

[formulanone]

Huntsville, Alabama is where the Saturn V rocket engines were developed and tested before propelling men to the moon. I haven't lived here long enough to know of much else; there's tons of aerospace and military contract firms that may or may not have performed notable things which are or are not classified information.

I've lived in Gainesville, Florida which is famous for having the University of Florida. The 34th Street Wall is a notable feature of town, after the Century Tower, thanks to FDOT.

I've also lived Nashville, Tennessee - well, that speaks for itself in terms of the country music industry.

Fort Lauderdale had the first Office Depot and Sports Authority (I don't think it's that big anymore). OD's corporate headquarters are about 25 miles north. Spirit Airlines vaguely got its start in FLL.

Other bits of suburban America where I've lived or was born aren't really notable for anything famous, save someone getting their fifteen minutes of fame. Not much in the way of manufacturing.

[NWI_Irish96]

Papa John's started here, a block away from my office.

[Pete from Boston]

The gypsy moth infestation.

[Takumi]

Petersburg, VA is known for its Civil War battle, and to roadgeeks as the north end of I-85. Colonial Heights, where I grew up and live, isn't really noteworthy for anything except being a white flight community in the days of integration.

[US71]

Fort Smith has Judge Parker's Courtroom and gallows  We're soon to be home of the US Marshall's Museum. The McClellan-Kerr Navigation System of the Arkansas River passes throgh here.

Fayetteville has the University of Arkansas. Lou Holtz coached here in the late 70's/early 80's.

Bentonville is home to Wal-Mart, known nationwide for putting competitors out of business and paying such paltry wages that many of their "Associates" are on  Food Stamps.  It's also home to Crystal Bridges Museum started by Alice (the town drunk)Walton.

Harrison, AR is home to Cavender's Seasonings

[1995hoo]

The town where we lived when I was born–Copperas Cove, Texas–is best-known these days as the hometown of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin.

Fairfax County, where I live now, has George Washington's home (Mount Vernon).

Supposedly, according to a story I heard on a local radio station, singer Bruce Hornsby got his start when Huey Lewis heard him performing at a Steak & Ale restaurant in Vienna, Virginia (a town located within Fairfax County). I kind of doubt that because Hornsby is from Williamsburg and I've heard stories elsewhere saying that while Hornsby was indeed discovered in a Steak & Ale, it was in Hampton, Virginia, and it was one of the Doobie Brothers who heard him performing. The latter story is more readily found online, so I suspect that is the correct version.

[Brandon]

Joliet, Illinois:

Dairy Queen.  The first one was downtown.
Uno.  Yes, International Games was located here and popularized the game from here.  There is a street named Uno Circle.
Community colleges.  The first public community college in the US was, and still is Joliet Junior College.

People:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Joliet,_Illinois
These include, but are not limited to:
John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood)
John Houbolt (aerospace engineer who came up with the lunar orbit rendezvous making the moon shots possible)
Lionel Richie
George Mikan (played for the Minneapolis Lakers)
Mike Alstott (played for the the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Daniel Reuttiger (yes, that one of Rudy fame)

Movies & TV:
The Blues Brothers
Prison Break

The city also plays as a stand-in for Chicago in various movies and shows.

[corco]

Coach Phil Jackson was born here in Deer Lodge, and we also have the country's first superfund site.

[empirestate]

Rochester, NY:

Most famously, Kodak film and cameras. When people talk about Hollywood films, I like to say that films aren't made in Hollywood; they're made in Rochester. Hollywood's just where they take the pictures. 

Also:

-Mail chutes.

-The first gasoline-powered automobile patent, by varying accounts.

[bassoon1986]

For Shreveport, LA off the top of my head would be the Louisiana Hayride, where Elvis Presley made his first television appearance in 1954.

and Terry Bradshaw

[golden eagle]

-The world's first animal-to-human heart transplant took place at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1964. The year prior, they performed to first human lung transplant.
-The inventor of Pine Sol was born in Jackson, but I don't know if the product itself was developed here.
-The first DirecTV console was purchased here.
-Jackson is where WorldCom was headquartered (later moving to Clinton) before imploding due to a financial scandal.
-We have a restaurant headquartered here called McAlisters, which is starting to pop all over the country.

[US71]

Joliet, Illinois:

Dairy Queen.  The first one was downtown.
Uno.  Yes, International Games was located here and popularized the game from here.  There is a street named Uno Circle.
Community colleges.  The first public community college in the US was, and still is Joliet Junior College.

People:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Joliet,_Illinois
These include, but are not limited to:
John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood)
John Houbolt (aerospace engineer who came up with the lunar orbit rendezvous making the moon shots possible)
Lionel Richie
George Mikan (played for the Minneapolis Lakers)
Mike Alstott (played for the the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Daniel Reuttiger (yes, that one of Rudy fame)

Movies & TV:
The Blues Brothers
Prison Break

The city also plays as a stand-in for Chicago in various movies and shows.

Capt Jack Harkness lives in Joliet?  Interesting.

[thenetwork]

Norman is probably only known nationwide for the football team.

I disagree (X gets the square).  When I hear of Norman OK, I immediately think of the National Storm Prediction Center.  If you live in a storm-prone area, you usually hear Norman, OK's city mentioned in the weather bulletin.

Anyhoo, out here in Grand Junction, though it may not have started here, we have the HQ of Leitner-Poma, maker of ski-lifts and gondolas, and are creating the seating cabs for the giant (world's largest??) Ferris Wheel in Las Vegas, which is under construction.

[bugo]

Norman is probably only known nationwide for the football team.

I disagree (X gets the square).  When I hear of Norman OK, I immediately think of the National Storm Prediction Center.

Norman has two claims to fame: OU and the NSPC.  Oklahoma is the perfect place for the NWS to be headquartered: it has nearly every kind of weather imaginable other than hurricanes: tornadoes, deadly lightning, flooding, ice storms, blizzards, heat waves, earthquakes (not technically weather...), and it's windy here ALL the time.

[bugo]

My hometown of Mena, Arkansas is best known for a cocaine smuggling operation that operated out of the Mena airport in the '80s.  They are making a movie about it.  There's not really anybody from Mena who has been famous in the last 80 years.  My current residence of Tulsa, Oklahoma is known for many things, namely oil, tornadoes, US 66, Cain's Ballroom, Native Americans, and (unfortunately) Oral Roberts University.  There are lots of celebrities from here: Bill Hader, Bill Goldberg, Garth Brooks (Owasso), Roy Clark, the Hansons, the guy from the pop group Bread, Bob Wills, Jim Inhofe (puke), Paul Harvey, Gary Busey, and some I've neglected to mention.

[Brandon]

Capt Jack Harkness lives in Joliet?  Interesting.

He was a graduate of Joliet West High School, Class of 1985.

[Pete from Boston]

Rochester, NY:

Most famously, Kodak film and cameras. When people talk about Hollywood films, I like to say that films aren't made in Hollywood; they're made in Rochester. Hollywood's just where they take the pictures. 

With Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb, Rochester was famously the optics capital of the world.  For those who remember the Cold War, it was alleged to always be on the short list of Soviet targets.

Also:

-Mail chutes.

(It's a series of tubes.)

[Henry]

Chicago: Sears, Roebuck & Co. (and everyone there still calls its tallest skyscraper the Sears Tower, not Willis), Pat Sajak

Los Angeles: The Hollywood film industry, Ice Cube

Seattle: Grunge music, Kenny G

[txstateends]

Amarillo:  (besides it's part of Route 66) the majority of the world's helium reserve is there (2 plants existed for decades there but the government disbanded them), the Cadillac Ranch, and the late actresses/performers Carolyn Jones and Cyd Charisse were from there

Cedar Rapids, IA:  Collins Radio (made communication products for decades trusted by military and civil-commercial firms; is still around as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rockwell), actors Ashton Kutcher and Elijah Wood, football player Kurt Warner, 'American Gothic' painter Grant Wood, Amana appliances (originally from the nearby Amana Colonies)

Dallas:  (besides the obvious JFK, TV show, and football references) the creation of and early manufacture of Liquid Paper, Jack Kilby co-invented the integrated circuit and the handheld calculator, the retailers Neiman Marcus and 7-Eleven started and are still based there, the parent company of restaurant chain Chili's, Southwest Airlines

[empirestate]

Rochester, NY:

Most famously, Kodak film and cameras. When people talk about Hollywood films, I like to say that films aren't made in Hollywood; they're made in Rochester. Hollywood's just where they take the pictures. 

With Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb, Rochester was famously the optics capital of the world.  For those who remember the Cold War, it was alleged to always be on the short list of Soviet targets.

Kodak was rumored to have a stockpile of napalm, according to local legend. Probably, they had stores of various chemicals relevant to their industry, some of which are doubtless also useful in nefarious processes.

But yes, other optical products certainly had their start in Rochester as well, such as xerography and Ray-Bans.

Also:

-Mail chutes.

(It's a series of tubes.)

Yup. But it's a series someone had to invent, and that someone was a Mr. Cutler of Rochester. His name is all over the interiors of NYC buildings. Combining its ubiquity with its relative triviality makes it somewhat more fun to cite than many of Rochester's better-known innovations.

Los Angeles: The Hollywood film industry

Well, I suppose by definition the "Hollywood" film industry had to start in California, but the industry itself did not have its start there. Many of the earliest American film studios began on the East Coast, particularly Westchester County, NY.

More accurate, I would say, is that Hollywood started from the film industry, rather than the film industry starting from Hollywood.