Fulton chosen one of top 10 'Coolest Small Towns in America'
FULTON — The City of Fulton is in the national spotlight.
The editors of Budget Travel Magazine put Fulton on their list of the top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America. Community leaders said they were not surprised by the national recognition.
“We’re unique and it’s different. We know how to have fun in Fulton,” Callaway Chamber of Commerce Tamara Tateosian said.
Fulton is the unique home of Westminster College and the National Winston Churchill Museum, where the World War II icon gave his famous Iron Curtain Speech. Above the museum is a 17th-century church. The church was dismantled and moved from London to Fulton. Outside the church sits a 32-foot segment of the Berlin Wall. Former presidents and world leaders have made speeches at the wall segment in honor of Churchill.
“I’m not sure Churchill would call his speech cool, but it certainly had an impact worldwide," museum chief curator Timothy Riley said. "We’re very pleased that we attract visitors from throughout the world here to Fulton to come and see Winston Churchill’s legacy as it still exists here today. I think that’s a main reason why this small town with great ideas continues to thrive.”
Fulton’s Auto World Museum attracts tourists from all over the world because of a unique collection of cars.
“I’ve had people from Australia, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Germany and everywhere," museum tour guide Randy Barnes said. "I had some last week from New Zealand. They come from everywhere.”
Downtown Fulton offers a unique trip to the past in the city’s Historic Brick District. You can follow the brick road to more than 50 buildings on the national historic register. New Yorkers driving across the United States can get a taste of home at Brooklyn Pizza. Owners Brian and Karen Atkins enjoy sharing their New York style pie in the middle of the United States.
“They want to find out if you are really from New York or Brooklyn and we you are from and where they are from," Brian Atkins said. "We have a conversation. It’s kind of nice finding a place like ours in the middle of the Midwest. It kind of makes me feel good when they do that.”
Lifetime Fulton resident Rose Galbreath said Fulton fits the cool mantra as she feels her neighbors are the friendliest people in the United States.
“The people are nice," Galbreath said. "There is not as much crime because it’s a small area, I think. It feels like a little safe town to live in.”
Community leaders said Fulton has a vibrant downtown, cutting-edge cuisine and a community spirit that makes visitors feel like friends.
