The town of Bayfield in northern Wisconsin is one of "The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2015," according to Smithsonian.com.
Bayfield Mayor Larry J. MacDonald, in a news release from the Bayfield Chamber & Visitor Bureau, said, "The recent designation from Smithsonian reinforces all the qualities of the place we call home.
MacDonald believes the residents of Bayfield place "people, the environment and our businesses in high regard," making it a community that stands out from all the rest.
"We are lucky to have a talented community that chooses to be both supportive and protective of our many assets, including both Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands" he said. "It is hard to imagine a better place than Bayfield."
For the past fours years, Smithsonian Magazine has highlighted its choices for the top 20 small towns in America as a way to encourage their readers to "take the path less traveled."
A selection committee at Smithsonian.com selected this year's top 20 towns from a pool of about 13,000 small American towns with populations of 20,000 people or less. According to Smithsonian writer and editor Bess Lovejoy, the committee used a geographic information service, ESRI, to narrow down its selection.
Lovejoy wrote, "Mother Nature is the undeniable draw in Bayfield."
The town, which sits on the pristine south shore of Lake Superior, is the gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Kelley Linehan, marketing and events manager at the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Bureau, said in the news release, "Clearly, the Smithsonian is a very well-respected institution, so this is a high honor for Bayfield. One of the aspects that I found to be particularly interesting is that their definition of a small town is 20,000 people or less. With Bayfield checking in at population 487, we were up against communities much larger than us, yet we made the final list."
Bayfield is host to four major festivals each year including Bayfield in Bloom, Bayfield Festival of Arts and Gallery Tour, Apple Festival and the Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race.
Home to 14 orchards and fruit farms, the town has also been dubbed the "Berry Capital of Wisconsin."
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