Town of the Week

We have a new feature!

Each week (well, what I really mean is each week that I feel like it), the staff here at
Encephalon Noodle Salad will highlight a town for all to learn about and perhaps travel to some weekend.
If you have a town you would like us to spotlight, just leave us a comment.

This week's town: Gasconade, Missouri.

Population (2000): 267
Geographic size: 0.2 sq. miles
Location: where the Gasconade River meets the Missouri River
Time Zone: Central
Approximate travel time from Coushatta, Louisiana: 11 hours, 13 minutes if you take I-49 (as if there's any other way!)
Median age: 38.9 years old
Median income: around $27,000
Nearly 1/4 of all residents over age 15 have never been married.
Nearly 1/2 of all residents over age 15 are currently married.
Women outnumber men by about a 5:4 ratio (or, as the Beach Boys might sing, 1.25 girls for every boy. Which means Gasconade ain't exactly Surf City. Hard to hang ten in a cornfield).
Last major tornado in the area: May 1, 1983
Times Styx, REO Speedwagon or Creedence Clearwater Revisited have played there on reunion tour(s): 0
Items of historical interest: On Novemner 1, 1855, the wooden trestle on the Gasconade Bridge collapsed as a Union Pacific train crossed. 30 were killed, hundreds injured.
Civil War factoid: Confederate General Sterling Price raided Gasconade County on Oct. 3, 1864. The local Burger Chef never reopened after the raid.
Celebrities who never lived near Gasconade: Oprah Winfrey, Pee-Wee Herman, Mel Gibson.
Number of Starbucks Coffee shops: 0
Reason to go: ability to tell people, "I done went and been to Gascoade, Missouri!"