Well, at least they smell. These are just a few of the places found in Peter Greenberg’s new book:
HEREFORD, TEXAS
Hereford, Texas, is proudly called by many in this region “The Saudi Arabia of cattle manure,” with more than 3.5 million meat and dairy cows within a 100-mile radius of the city. With just 154,5000 people calling Hereford home, that means there are about 233 241 cows for every human living in town for every human.
With quaint hotels, various horse shows, and historical spots, Hereford is a subdued diversion from nearby Amarillo but otherwise doesn’t have much to offer, unless you count odor as a commodity. As the locals like to say about Hereford and its cows, “It’s the smell of money.”
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
Some people call Cedar Rapids “The City of Five Seasons,” where the fifth is “time to enjoy the other four.”
Well, Cedar Rapids also has an unofficial nickname: “The City of Five Smells.”
With I-380 running directly through it, Cedar Rapids, the second second-largest city in Iowa, is home to many grain processing plants, including General Mills and Quaker Oats, which is the largest cereal plant in the world. In Cedar Rapids, most people claim the smells emanating from processing plants are more or less innocuous, pleasantly redolent of Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries or oatmeal, though some days, these sites can offer up a miasma of odors.
Burnt corn, stale, rotting garbage, and over-overcooked oatmeal are some of the more overpowering smells that combine into one nasty stench. Cedar Rapids is also home to the food manufacturing sites of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill, and Ralston Foods. You’ll know when you get close to the town: It will beckon you with clouds of smoke emanating from the industrial center, followed by the smell.
To add insult to injury, at least 100 blocks in Cedar Rapids were under-water when the Cedar River flooded in June 2008. And weeks later, the debris and garbage remaining from the flood began piling up. So much that officials had to reopen the formerly closed Cedar Rapids landfill (once known as “Mount Trashmore”) to accommodate what equated to four football fields, or two years’ worth, of trash.
WILLIAMSBURG, MICHIGAN
Tucked between Elk Lake and Lake Michigan, Grand Traverse Bay, is a great pit stop for the road trip through Michigan’s watery regions. Williamsburg, Michigan, is off the beaten path, with rolling hills and a handful of old-fashioned bed bed-and and-breakfasts. It’s hard to imagine that life in the once-pristine township is no bowl of cherries.
In January 2006, Bill O’Brien, of the Traverse City Record Record-Eagle, reported on the fetid odors emanating from Williamsburg Receiving and Storage’s fruit-processing plant, a place where fresh cherries are turned into delectable maraschino cherries. Turns out that the simple maraschino packs a pretty pungent stench, which may help to explain why the locals plan outdoor parties but don’t stay outside for long.
The reason: a horrible smell coming from the plant’s industrial waste-water site, composed of ferocious quantities of sulfites and salt used in the processing of the cherries. Imagine a 5-million million-gallon, football foot-ball-field-sized lagoon of stagnant wastewater. Welcome to Williamsburg.
ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND
Home to constantly emitting sulfuric gases, Rotorua is the self-proclaimed stink capital of the world—in fact, it calls itself “Sulfur City.” You want to smell rotten eggs endlessly? You’ve come to the right place. This geothermally active region is actually a major tourist destination for its steaming geysers, otherworldly pools of bubbling mineral lakes, and healing mud baths. But don’t pack your Prada for this trip. The smell of sulfur not only will overpower you during your stay, but will stick to your clothes through several washings! Is it worth a visit? For the first time tourists, perhaps yes, with the cautions mentioned above. Worth a second visit? No.
NAPLES, ITALY – THE STINKIEST PLACE ON EARTH? SOMETIMES
Lots of organized tours to Italy go to or through Naples. It’s the third-largest city in the country, and people usually visit to see Mount Vesuvius and interesting Roman ruins. But they’ll also see something that the brochures don’t mention: How about having to wade through piles of festering filth and trash? In Naples and the surrounding Campania region, the waste disposal industry is Mafia run, specifically by the Camorra, with often disastrous consequences and no way to cut through the red tape. The city goes through cycles when it is literally drowning in garbage.
Things really came to a head when collectors stopped picking up the trash in Naples on December 21, 2007 … and didn’t come back until early to mid-January 2008! A few months later, the European Union filed suit against Italy for failure to dispose of the massive piles of garbage in Naples. In the meantime, residents were surrounded by heaping mounds of moldering trash, and many took to burning the piles, which created a toxic hazard and an overwhelming stench.
And this isn’t the first time this has happened: The region’s dumps hit maximum capacity more than a decade ago, causing the problem to arise almost on an annual basis. Local officials have yet to announce a yearly garbage festival in an attempt to attract curious, unwitting tourists, but that might be their only salvation. Speaking of salvation: Save yourself and don’t go there.
From Don’t Go There!: The Travel Detective’s Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World (Rodale, $17.95).
[...] So, I visited Greenberg’s Web site and found that Kathy, Jane and Katheryn let him know they do not agree with his assessment of Cedar Rapids. And here’s what Greenberg had to say about Cedar Rapids. [...]
Cedar Rapids Stinks? « Ramblin’ With Rasdal
November 19th, 2008
Good job hitting a city while it’s down. Cedar Rapids didn’t have 100 city blocks under water - it was more like 1,000 city blocks under water. This city has just endured one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of our country with total damages nearing $7-8 BILLION dollars. You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Greenberg. Perhaps you should donate a a percentage of your profits to help Cedar Rapids recover!
Jeff
November 20th, 2008
Dear Mr Greenberg,
I first thought of writing you an angry letter. However that is not my nature nor it the nature of most Cedar Rapidians. Then I though of writing sarcastically to complement you on helping to stop the influx of Californians and Chicagoans to Cedar Rapids who have brought us higher property taxes and bad driving in order to live the good life they wanted but could not live in the bigger cities. But no, if i did that my letter would turn into a novella and I’ve been glad to witness the appearance of numerous sushi bars and coffee houses over the past 10 years. So I will simply write that you, or your researcher, owe Cedar Rapids an apology.
Your description of Cedar Rapids as smelly and your belittling the flood of June 2008 was ethically & morally wrong, as well as inaccurate. Your short description of Cedar Rapids stands out from the rest of your book in its meanness so much that I wondered how such an unfunny diatribe could have made it into your book. Based on the rest of the book’s contents, I find it difficult to believe that it was accidental nor that it was your personal intent to make light of the worst disaster in Iowa history. Perhaps your researcher had a bone to pick with the city.
Here then is a brief bit of information that you can pass on to your researcher who, maybe lived here or visited during the flood, was bitten by rabid native of Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids’ Chamber of Commerce motto ‘City of Five Seasons’ was adapted to replace the previous lame nickname ‘Parlor City’. Many people, myself included, never though much of the new nickname let alone the old one. Many folks, with a typical Iowan sense of humor, modified the motto to ‘City of Five Smells’. Cedar Rapidians like to joke. When the city decided to add to the already plentiful outdoor downtown sculptures by erected a gigantic aluminum tree on the riverfront, city residents laughingly referred to it as the giant toilet bowl brush. In any case, the five smells’ joke referred to the agricultural plants around the city and the large meat processing plants that was located just south of the downtown area. But that was decades ago. The meat processors are long gone and the only odor is an occasional whiff of toasted oats when the winds shift which is infrequently. A nasty stench it is not. The ‘clouds of smoke’ that you reference emanating from the industrial area south of the city is not smoke; it is steam. A steam that can be so dense that US Highway 30, just north of these plants, is sometimes closed when the winds shift and the steam cloud causes foggy road conditions.
The old city dump was nicknamed ‘Mt Trashmore’. Remember what I said the fondness of locals to make jokes. This particular pun was to reference a local historical site named ‘Brucemore’. Look it up on the internet. The old dump indeed had to be temporarily opened to deal with the debris caused by the June 2008 floods.
The Flood of June 2008 was the worst disaster in Iowa history but it seems to have fallen off the nation’s radar. Cedar Rapids was devastated by this natural disaster. It will take years and years for the city to recover, if it ever does. The dollar damage estimate as of December, 2008 is 6 billion dollars. The public service infrastructure was wiped out. The public library was destroyed (worst library disaster in US history). Courthouses, gone; City Hall, gone; museums, symphony, non-profit agencies, all gone. And yes, the downtown did stink. It stunk for weeks after the toxic flood waters receded.
The total financial relief received from the feds so far is 35 million. But Cedar Rapidians didn’t complain. They just rebuild as best they can and the city is slowly coming back.
Your book’s attempt at humor demeans the efforts of the residents of Cedar Rapids who have worked hard to recover form a terrible disaster. Would you have written similar things about lower Manhattan after 9/11? Or of New Orleans after Katrina? I would like to think not and your book’s section on Cedar Rapids was done purely out of ignorance. I think you should correct it.
BTW, I have lived in Cedar Rapids for 35 years but I was born and grew up in New York City. I don’t think the subways have changed much, so If you want a real smell experience, take a ride on the IRT.
Les Kapler
December 12th, 2008
I just want to say first congratulations on the recent spike of publicity you’ve been receiving lately. I don’t know if you’ve been there at all, but I believe you should add Monroe, Louisiana to the list of stinky places. Every time I and my family pass through there to head to Mississippi from Texas, i’ve hated passing through there.
TAK
The Apollo Kid
December 17th, 2008
Mu Nei Vietnam stink of Fish Sauce a popular condiment for food in Asia. This is the worst smelling city I have encountered in 10 years of perpetual travel. Varanasi, India on the Ganges is another bad place.
Andy of HoboTraveler.com Travel Blog now in Guatemala, and soon to Peru to get up near the un-contacted tribes.
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
December 23rd, 2008
USA stinks!
Europe
January 11th, 2009
While Cedar Rapids seem to have a lot of people whining about this blog I think that you could add many more names to this list! Gary Indiana, Kaukauna Wisconsin, LOL the list could go on. Very informative! LOL
Lisa Bumble
February 10th, 2009
Although I can’t refute the basic premise of your description of Hereford, Texas, I must make two points: 1)Your opinion would carry a lot more weight if your grammar and math were more accurate and 2)as we’re fond of saying in this part of the country, “Cow manure smells a lot like money.” Thanks for buying our milk and steaks, we’re holding our noses all the way to the bank.
Canyon Jim
February 12th, 2009
Never go to marmaris in Turkey. It’s so crowded, cheap and full with many wild Turkish men. They always disturb girls. Also sea is filthy and shallow.
And because of nobody informed me about what kind of a place this marmaris, i’m married now with stupid man who i’ve met in marmaris.
elena
February 16th, 2009
[...] So, I visited Greenberg’s Web site and found that Kathy, Jane and Katheryn let him know they do not agree with his assessment of Cedar Rapids. And here’s what Greenberg had to say about Cedar Rapids. [...]
Cedar Rapids Stinks? | Gazette Online
July 21st, 2009
So happy to enjoy such a entertaining article that does not depend on base posturing to get the idea covered. Thank you for an entertaining read.
false favourites
April 8th, 2010