Angola nominated for Best Historic Small Town by USA Today

By Ashlee Hoos | KPC Media - The Herald Republican

Angola was nominated for Best Historic Small Towns for USA Today’s 10 Best Reader’s Choice Travel Awards.

Angola Mayor Richard Hickman said while nobody seems to know who nominated Angola, it’s an honor to be nominated and to be on the list.

Speculation, he said, is that perhaps Deb Fallows, who recently visited Angola as part of the “Our Towns” book tour, was responsible for the nomination.

She is listed as one of the experts on the website for the competition.

“These things have kind of popped up before, like best place to retire, best micropolitan,” Hickman said. “This is just really great for a community like ours to get recognition for the hard work all of our groups and organizations do.”

Until someone notified the city of the nomination, Hickman said they had no idea it was coming.

However, once it came to light, he said they began sharing it as much as possible to get the word out for people to vote for Angola.

“Even being in the top 20 is great for our community,” Hickman said. “But, let’s get Angola into the top 10.”

Cities nominated for the list have less than 30,000 people as of the last census according to the voting website.

Votes for the list may be cast by those age 18 and older by going to 10best.com/awards. Each person may vote once per category per day.

Voting ends on May 6 at noon with the top 10 being announced on May 17.

Other cities nominated for the designation are Abilene, Kansas, Bisbee, Arizona, Bluffton, South Carolina, Cape May, New Jersey, Clarkdale, Mississippi, Cody, Wyoming, Deadwood, South Dakota, Dodge City, Kansas, Fairhope, Alabama, Ferndale, California, Granbury, Texas, Haddonfield, New Jersey, Mackinac Island, Michigan, Moundsville, West Virginia, Natchez, Mississippi, Natchitoches, Louisiana, St. Augustine, Florida, Tarpon Springs, Florida and Williamsburg, Virginia.

As of the morning of Monday, April 22, Angola was ranked 3rd.