Cotter, AR

Cotter grew on a bend of the White River after the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad chose the area as a division point. The city opened in 1905, and the railroad still sets the tone of the story, from the Anglin-Tinnon Railroad Workers Memorial to the Rainbow Bridge, built in 1929. The river has older chapters too: Cherokee people traveling the Trail of Tears crossed nearby in 1829, and historic markers remain in town. Cotter's newspaper history is unusually deep for a city this size, with five papers over the years. It is an Ozark river town where trains, trout water, and difficult history all share the same bend.