Comment on WTF is a rural town in the USA?
radix@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoSee also: census designated places, a collection of people with no formal town incorporation/government. My dad grew up in a “town” (CDP) of about 250 residents. It’s about a half hour drive from the nearest real town, for things like groceries and hospitals.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Another possibly related wrinkle here is that I an given to understand (I am by no means an expert) that there is not a single square inch of dirt anywhere within the United States that is not considered by the Postal Service to fall within the boundaries of a ZIP code. Regardless of the population level of that location (even if any), any mailbox staked into the ground anywhere will have an associated ZIP code which will inherit the name of some city/town/borough/whatever by default. This is regardless of how many miles are between that location and the city in question, or how much it makes sense.
Everywhere in the country is somewhere, even if it’s the middle of nowhere, according to the post office.
For added giggles, here is one of my oft-reposted pictures, which happens to be more-or-less in the, er, “city center” of Tartown, PA which is on the MABDR route in the saddle of a random mountain in the middle of the woods near the Southern border of Pennsylvania.
Image
Tartown is an abandoned “unincorporated community” within the ZIP code 17320, which ostensibly covers Fairfield in Adams County, PA. “Community” is a strong word. There is in fact no such place as Tartown, except there is. Information on it is sparse, and it contains no development, no remaining buildings, no utilities, no government, and no population. However it is a named point on a map that has a defined location and presumably will forevermore, as long as the records are kept. Thus it is a town.
…For a suitably small quantity of “town.”