Alice Springs, Northern Territory staged its first Henley-on-Todd regatta in 1962, a boat race run on the sand of a dry riverbed.

In 1950 Dick Geisler put vintage cars on show at his gas station in Murdo, South Dakota, and in 1954 the family founded the Pioneer Auto Show.

Sag Harbor, New York, named a US port of entry in 1789, now draws visitors year round with captains’ houses, a 299-seat theater and a restored cinema.

Vulcan, Alberta shares its name with a fictional Star Trek species. Since 1993 the Alberta town has built a starship replica and held a convention.

Quartzsite, Arizona staged its first gem show in 1967 with 74 vendors, and the Arizona Highway Department put the winter crowd at 750,000 to a million.

In 1927 English teacher Emma Shay planted a Shakespeare garden in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, that now holds more than 150 types of plants.

Port Townsend, Washington turned a lost railroad boom and a frozen Victorian downtown into a wooden boat festival that draws more than 10,000 people.

Torrington, Alberta turned a joke from a 1990s planning meeting into the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum, open with costumed gophers since 1996.

Sutherland, South Africa went from one guesthouse in 2001 to more than fifty, and its 9.2 metre telescope was inaugurated in 2005.

Rugby, North Dakota built a fieldstone cairn in 1932 to mark the geographic center of North America, and still defends the claim with a trademark.