Votes
2012 Best Small Towns in America
- 73 votes - Friendliest
- 2 votes - Most Patriotic
Description
In 2011, a tornado that could’ve destroyed Joplin only strengthened it. The experience united this community and revealed a spirit of resilience they’re now known for. The town’s adopted the motto “Rebuilding the Human Spirit,” marked by a monument and mosaic in the town’s park and exhibited at Joplin Museum and the Spiva Center for the Arts.
The Joplin Museum Complex houses five individual museums including the Sports Hall of Fame and Historical Museum, while the Spiva Center hosts three rotating galleries featuring regional and international art. Visitors can additionally take in history at Joplin Little Theatre, George Washington Carver park, Joe Becker Stadium or the Murphysburg District.
Joplin has a flare for fun food between the Candy House’s handmade sweets, Eagle Drive-In’s burgers and Big R’s Bar-BQ. For more fun, head to Route 66 Carousel Park for everything from go-karts and bumper boats to a ferris wheel and mini-golf. Check out a Joplin Outlaws Baseball game when they’re in season, too.
Joplin hosts several annual events including the Joplin Holiday Experience and Memorial Run, competitions in photography at PhotoSpiva and BMX racing at JoMoPro, and festivals like Boomtown Days with food and music and the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center Water Festival with cardboard boat racing. See more of what Joplin has in store with these reviews!
Traveler Reviews
We have lived in Joplin over five years and each year is better. Even the Joplin Tornado Year proved to be filled with kindness, openness and a true "Miracle of the Human Spirit" attitude. We are proud to be part of this community and to call it home. Our downtown area is beautiful and alive and well. Come see us, you will appreciate what we are becoming.
Joplin MO is the Best of the Road because we are a heartfelt town that loves people to travel in and out on our town roads. We love each other and the visitors that are just passin' through. Anyone is welcome here and chances are you'll get a hug from somebody whether you're coming or going! :)
Great town to live and raise a family in! It's got a small taste of big city with the actvities but maintains that small town feel which is hard to find these days. You can see it everyday with the support they have received with the cleanup and rebuilding efforts since the tornado last year! This town deserves this!!!
Joplin is rebuilding bigger and better that ever.
Thank you, to all of the volunteers from all over the country for your help.
Not with the extra taxes and closing business. We need to go a long way and some how need to bring in more jobs and not just restaurants including fast foods and less clothing stores. Who has the money to keep these types of businesses in business? Not just is the economy poor across the country but Joplin's isn't looking too bright itself. I want to say in itself I LOVE Joplin I am PROUD to live in Joplin. I just do not want to see us become like some of the cities in Michigan.