Talk:U.S. Route 36

U.S. Roads: U.S. Highways Mid‑importance

	U.S. roads portal This article is within the scope of the U.S. Roads WikiProject, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to state highways and other major roads in the United States. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.U.S. RoadsWikipedia:WikiProject U.S. RoadsTemplate:WikiProject U.S. RoadsU.S. road transport articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
Topics	U.S. Highways
	This article has a map. If the file has an error, please work with the Maps department to correct it.
	This article does not require a junction list.
	This article has a KML file. If the file has an error, please work with the Maps department to correct it.

Missouri

	Missouri portal This article is part of WikiProject Missouri, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Missouri. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.MissouriWikipedia:WikiProject MissouriTemplate:WikiProject MissouriMissouri articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

United States: Colorado / Indiana / Ohio Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Colorado portal This article is supported by WikiProject Colorado, our collaboration to create, improve, and update Wikipedia articles about the U.S. State of Colorado. To comment about this article, select the Add topic tab above. For questions about, or to make suggestions for Colorado articles, go to our project's talk page. We invite you to join us!
	Indiana portal This article is supported by WikiProject Indiana (assessed as Low-importance).
	Ohio portal This article is supported by WikiProject Ohio (assessed as Low-importance).

Kansas Low‑importance

	Kansas portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Kansas, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Kansas on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.KansasWikipedia:WikiProject KansasTemplate:WikiProject KansasKansas articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

What is a notable city?

Estes Park (in Colorado) is a notable city even though it is not very large, being a major tourist resort for more than 100 years.

In eastern Colorado and Northern Kansas, U.S. Route 36 covers roughly 600 miles without encountering any city or town of 5000 or more people. Are we therefore to regard this piece of highway as being utterly featureless?

I think not. For that reason the list of cities includes the two largest towns in this stretch -- Hiawatha and Norton, both in Kansas -- which are outstanding examples of midwestern county-seat towns serving farm country, even though their popluations are only about 3000-4000. I also included one town with a nostalgic tourist attraction: Lebanon, Kansas, with the monument indicating the geographical center of the "lower 48" states of the USA.

Similarly, U.S. Route 36 in eastern Indiana runs about 80 miles without encountering any town of more than 1500 people (except for some rather unremarkable Indianapolis suburbs). It is my opinion that this portion of the road can be appropriately represented by the town of Lynn, the boyhood home of the notorious Rev. Jim "Kool-aid" Jones, population about 1100. To mention additional hamlets between Indianapolis and the Ohio border would be superfluous.

Paul 14 November 2006