Cook County News Herald

Grand Marais among top ‘outdoor’ towns




Outdoor Life
magazine ranks the top towns for hunters and fishermen in its June/July 2010 issue, and Grand Marais is 14th on the list.

The magazine used extensive data to score 200 towns on their sporting opportunities and quality-of-life issues for its third annual ranking. Rapid City, S.D., took top honors on the magazine’s “America’s Top 200 Towns for Sportsmen” list. Outdoor Life
also created 10 custom lists for sportsmen interested in specific outdoor pursuits, including bass fishing, whitetail hunting and more. For complete details on all 200 towns, see OutdoorLife.com/besttowns.

“Outdoorsmen want worldclass hunting and fishing, but like everyone else, they also want to have a high quality of life,” says John Taranto, editor of Outdoor
Life.
“The towns on this list offer the best of the outdoors as well as decent homes and schools and good-paying jobs. They are truly dream towns for sportsmen.”

Rapid City, S.D., took first place in this year’s list thanks to its proximity to some of the best and most varied hunting and fishing in the nation, combined with excellent scores in several socioeconomic categories. Pierre, at No. 10, is the only other South Dakota town in the top 10.

Pocatello, Idaho, at No. 2, jumped from a No. 5 ranking in 2009. At No. 3, Page is Arizona’s only town on the list this year. Last year’s top town, Lewiston, Idaho, came in at No. 4 this year. Kanab, Utah, once known as “Little Hollywood” because the town and its surrounding area were used as the set in many classic Westerns, moved up seven spots to No. 5. Year-round trout and steelhead fishing helped place Bend, Oregon, at No. 6. Mountain Home, Arkansas, No. 7, is the easternmost town in the top ten. A pair of Wyoming towns round out the list, with Saratoga at No. 8 and Rawlins at No. 9.


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