Small Towns of the Midwest

Small Towns in the Midwest

The Midwest’s best small towns sit on water: the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, the Ohio. They are brick main streets with river views, lake islands without cars, and farm towns that turn into festival towns for a weekend each year.

Michigan: Mackinac Island and Holland

On Mackinac Island, motor vehicles are banned, so the soundtrack is horse hooves and bicycle bells. Visit Fort Mackinac, cycle the road around the island’s shore and, of course, buy fudge. On Lake Michigan, Holland celebrates its Dutch roots with the Tulip Time festival each May and a working Dutch windmill, De Zwaan, on Windmill Island.

Wisconsin and Illinois

Door County, the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, is a string of small villages — Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay — with lighthouses, cherry orchards, Peninsula State Park and traditional fish boils. In northwest Illinois, Galena preserves a 19th-century main street and the home given to Ulysses S. Grant after the Civil War.

Minnesota’s river towns

Indiana and Ohio

On the Ohio River, Madison, Indiana, has one of the Midwest’s largest collections of 19th-century buildings and the Lanier Mansion State Historic Site. Neighboring Vevay was settled by Swiss immigrants and still celebrates that heritage with its Swiss Wine Festival. In Lake Erie, Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island is home to Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial.