Monmouth

Monmouth is best known--at least to anyone under 35 years old--as the last dry town in Oregon. I said that exact sentence to Mayor John Oberst when I met him at the OMA after he autographed our map. As it turns out, Mayor Oberst was one of the principle factors in overturning the no-alcohol law in 2002. Monmouth is still limited to beer and wine, but if the Mayor has his way then perhaps you can get a decent cocktail at the Main Street Pub and Eatery within the near future. The other thing that Monmouth is mainly known for to people my age is that Western Oregon University is 75% women. Whether this is a true fact or just the stuff of legends is impossible to realize without looking it up on google, but I can say for certain that generations of graduating high school seniors have heard this rumor and have probably taken it very seriously when applying for college. Nevermind the fact that it's the oldest college on the West Coast.
Although Monmouth shares a border with Independence, they both have two totally distinct downtown areas. I think the boundary between the two towns is probably right at that weird bend in the highway that usually signifies that someone made a slight surveying error when plotting the original township and range markers. Another rumor--quite plausibly true--was that this section of road was highly patrolled before the beer ban by Monmouth City Police as people drove back to campus from the nearest bars located across the border in Independence.
Monmouth, it seems, has been insulated from the harsh development that comes with being close to a major freeway. It's still surrounded by random farm stands where you can buy berries and pumpkins and whole ducks. Something about pulling off the side of the road to buy a ready-to-roast duck makes me really happy for some reason. And I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of eating ducks either.
18 down, 224 to go.