Hamilton, MT

Here's my little town of Hamilton. Most of the buildings downtown are vintage 1800s. Buildings leading into town are all newer and largely ignored by me. I prefer the older part of town. There are lovely little boutiques and specialty shops, smart little cafes and only 5 stop-lights in the whole town....sometimes also ignored by me. We have 2 large national and international labs in town...the national CDC lab is a class 4 lab (deals with the uber-diseases and bugs: AIDS, ebola, mersa, etc.) so we have hundreds of research scientists and doctors. Glaxo-Smith-Kline has a large lab, as well. This gives rise to a lovely international population that seems to really like this small mountain town and we welcome every one. The general population is well-educated (94% college grads) and well-traveled (more than 50% have traveled outside the Americas). Our politicians are idiots, but they're our idiots. We get rid of the old fools and elect fresh fools. Some were born to a rural lifestyle; others have come here to embrace it. In short...it's just another day in Paradise.