Gerlach, Nevada is a 130-person desert outpost that becomes the last fuel-and-water stop for 70,000 Burning Man pilgrims one week a year.
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin: how a scenic river gorge made famous by a 19th-century photographer became the self-proclaimed Waterpark Capital of the World.
Anoka, Minnesota, the self-proclaimed Halloween Capital of the World, has run a civic Halloween festival every year since 1920 and now draws crowds topping 60,000.
Lanesboro, Minnesota: a town of 724 that turned a dead rail line and a paved Root River bike trail into a nationally ranked bike and art mecca.
Cuyuna, Minnesota turned flooded iron mines into a 70-mile IMBA Silver mountain bike mecca, drawing hundreds of thousands of riders to the old range.
Leavenworth, Washington faked its way to fame: a dying timber town reborn as a Bavarian village that now pulls 3.4 million visitors a year.
