COOLEST SMALL TOWNS Get a look at what makes these towns the best in the U.S. • Launch the slide show REAL ESTATE: COOLEST SMALL TOWNS 2008 Want to move in? Check out available and recently sold real estate in some of our coolest small towns, including luxury and affordable housing. • Launch the slide show 10 COOLEST SMALL TOWNS • Port Jervis, N.Y. • Manitou Springs, Colo. • Yellow Springs, Ohio • Mazomanie, Wis. • Point Reyes Station, Calif. • Belfast, Maine • Catskill, N.Y. • Truth or Consequences, N.M. • Livingston, Mont. • White River Junction, Vt.

White River Junction, Vt.
Population: 2,569
Nearest City: Manchester, N.H., 76 miles

The long-depressed former railroad hub reinvented itself as an artists' colony several years ago, so the 19th-century storefronts traffic more in quirky than in quaint. The Main Street Museum showcases a collection of oddities that includes gallstones said to be Elvis Presley's (58 Bridge St., 802/356-2776, mainstreetmuseum.org), and The Center for Cartoon Studies offers lectures by cartoonists such as Garry Trudeau (94 S. Main St., 802/295-3319, cartoonstudies.org). The Tip Top building, a former bakery, is home to about 40 artists' studios, the Tip Top Café (85 N. Main St., 802/295-3312, tiptopcafevt.com), and the Cooler Gallery, which exhibits the works of international artists (802/295-8008, coolergallery.biz). Over at Revolution, Kim Souza sells espresso and indie-designed and vintage clothes (26 N. Main St., 802/295-6487, revolutionvintage.com). She's happy the town has maintained a sense of community as it's grown. "The owner of the building across the street asked me what color to paint it, since I'm going to be looking at it," she says. White River Junction also has decent nightlife. You can catch a play by the Northern Stage theater company (12 N. Main St., 802/296-7000, northernstage.org) and then eat dinner to live jazz at Elixir, a lounge in an old freight warehouse (188 S. Main St., 802/281-7009, elixirrestaurant.com, tapas from $7).