is your hometown famous for anything?

[Moms68]

Newington, CT is the home of ARRL (American Radio Relay League) very critical worldwide for ham radio operators.

American Radio Relay League - Wikipedia

 

[eldubb440]

My town is famous for the Maximum State Prison located here.


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I have a mental hospital and prison for the criminally insane withing walking distance. They were still doing lobotomies there not so long ago.

as a kid, I remember several instances of "escapes" from the hospital...... they were known as "walk aways"

this is from a somewhat interesting, but lengthy web page I found............... Exploring The Unknown History of Ancora Hospital

Lurid tales
Similarly lurid tales of deranged war vets and ghosts run wild through an abandoned-village-turned-Pinelands-killing-zone popped up on more than a dozen other websites.

I have to admit that at first I wasn't really sure how much of this was true or not, because, after all, Ancora Psychiatric Hospital has always been one of those places locals tend to know of but not much about.

Criminally insane
It houses more than five dozen criminally-insane inmates -- individuals

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Photo: Hoag Levins​

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Ancora is a place of high security and many types of fences. Its population of criminally insane inmates are housed in a separate prison-like compound. Larger​

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tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity -- in addition to 25 patients charged with a crime and sent to the hospital for evaluation and/or treatment. There are also some 20 sex offenders who have been sent to Ancora as Megan's Law offenders. Today, this criminal population is housed in an isolated Secure Care Unit encircled by two high-security prison fences and closely monitored by guards and sophisticated electronics systems.
But in 2007 the escapes of two patients made headlines. The first was William Enman, a paranoid schizophrenic who beat a man and his 4-year-old son to death with a baseball bat. He escaped from a building surrounded by a fence that was only 8 feet high. After a frantic two-day search stretching as far north as Canada, he was arrested on hospital grounds and shipped off to the more secure Anne Klein Forensic Center in Trenton.
Just three months later, DeWitt Crandell Jr., who had used

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Photo: Ancora Hospital​

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The headquarters complex sits at the center of the Ancora Hospital grounds. Larger​

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a 9-inch hunting knife to stab his mother and father to death in 1996, walked off the grounds. He remained missing for several hours until police found him, stark naked, along the railroad tracks in a nearby town. He was returned to Ancora where, sometime later, he hanged himself with a bed sheet in a hospital bathroom while supposedly under direct staff supervision.
Today, stories like those of Enman and Crandell -- disturbing though they are -- are rare at Ancora. Despite the screaming headlines and sensational press

 

[Jeff Peterson]

Just saw this on a local history Facebook page, Val Kilmer's mom is from my hometown, never knew that.

 

[hemi*guy]

Velveeta Cheese started in my town in 1918 by Swiss immigrant Emil Frey

 

[toolmanmike]

The big boys are built here. The largest is the 9RX 830 4 track powered by an 18 liter diesel cranking out a peak of 913 horsepower. The base weight is 74,000 pounds and the price tag is around a million $$$

 

[Jeff Peterson]

They may be built there, but........

The John Deere World Headquarters (or John Deere Administration Center) is the corporate headquarters for the agricultural equipment manufacturing company John Deere (also known as Deere & Co.) in Moline, Illinois, United States.

 

[fesser]

Englewood, NJ. If it is famous for anything, nobody told me.

 

[toolmanmike]

They may be built there, but........

The John Deere World Headquarters (or John Deere Administration Center) is the corporate headquarters for the agricultural equipment manufacturing company John Deere (also known as Deere & Co.) in Moline, Illinois, United States.

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Yep, interesting history. JD started in Moline building plows. They started building their own line of tractors in 1918 when they bought out the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. Here is where the first Waterloo Boy tractors were built. Here's one displayed at our museum not far from here.

 

[Unkle Krusty]

The average age of folks on my Island, is well past 60.
Lots pf places I do not go, everyone is too old.
But the working folks, as opposed to the dead beats, are quite generous. I got the 77 Van for free, and yesterday I got a mint 15hp Mercury OBM for free. But it is in mint condition.

 

[Dennis H]

Allentown. Mack Trucks.

 

[eldubb440]

Allentown. Mack Trucks.

 

[TN Mopar]

If you've eaten M&M's chances are they came from Cleveland TN
If you've eaten Peanut Butter M&M's they absolutely came from here


The Mars Wrigley factory in Cleveland, Tennessee, is one of two M&M's production facilities in the United States, the other being in Hackettstown, New Jersey. The Cleveland plant is described as the largest M&M plant globally and produces the widest variety of M&M's flavors. It is also the exclusive manufacturing location for peanut butter M&M's and has been the sole producer for new flavors, such as hazelnut spread M&M's.
In 2021, the Cleveland chocolate factory reported producing 300 million M&M's daily, which translates to 40 truckloads of M&M's each day from this single factory. If the Hackettstown factory were to produce the same quantity, the total daily production in the U.S. would be close to 600 million M&M's. The Mars Corporation's largest production facility is located in Cleveland, Tennessee, contributing to a sweet scent of chocolate in the air of the city.

 

[themechanic]

The shopping cart was invented by Sylvan Goldman, an American businessman and supermarket owner, in 1936 in Oklahoma City. He introduced the device on June 4, 1937, at his Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain, revolutionizing the retail industry by allowing customers to carry more goods than a hand basket permitted. Goldman, working with mechanic Fred Young, constructed the first cart using a metal fra… Shopping cart invention

 

[Jeff Peterson]

Yep, interesting history. JD started in Moline building plows. They started building their own line of tractors in 1918 when they bought out the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. Here is where the first Waterloo Boy tractors were built. Here's one displayed at our museum not far from here. View attachment 2017596

This is a very interesting documentary, Deere wanted to get into the tractor biz, but were very reluctant because they thought the biggest farm tractor manufacturer in the world at that time would run them out of business, non other than Henry Ford.

 

[440 PHIXX]

Hatfield Quality Meats. Used to be Hatfield Packing. Hot dogs, pork, and other pig ****.

 

[1967coronet]

My home town Guthrie Center Ia. 7 miles

west of me had a 14 yr run of a 3 day party called River Rukus.
Town of 1,300 , county seat.
Moved to east of Des Moines in 2024 it just out grew Guthrie, big name country stars came and went.
It was quite a event lol.

 

[JackR]

Chicken wings

 

[beanhead]

Among other things, raisins....

 

[Black_Sheep]

The correctional facility…

 

[old guys rule]

a family member emailed me this youtube link; been here my whole life and I never heard anything about it.......

Niagara Falls, NY