CENTERVILLE — Outdoor Life magazine has released its fifth annual “Best Towns for Sportsmen,” a list of the 35 best places to live for those who love the outdoors. This year Outdoor Life put a new spin on the list, focusing exclusively on the hunting and fishing opportunities available in cities and towns across the country.
Centerville made the cut at No. 5. The list appears in the May issue of Outdoor Life.
"Centerville is in the middle of a sportsman’s paradise," according to the magazine. "Epic whitetails get the headlines (the 307-inch Lovstuen Buck was killed just north of here), but south-central Iowa has plenty of four-season opportunity: abundant turkeys and waterfowl, plus great crappies, walleyes, and channel cats on Rathbun Lake north of town.
"But it’s the human dimension of this place—the classic Midwestern courthouse square, the easy friendliness of its residents—that makes this a great town to call home. Plus, Centerville has some bona fide hunting pedigree: It’s the original home of groundbreaking Knight muzzleloading rifles."
Appleton, Wis., leads the list as the country’s top town for sportsmen. The town sits in the middle of prime hunting and fishing grounds.
The list's top 10:
- Appleton, Wis.
- Salmon, Idaho
- Venice, La.
- Rapid City, S.D.
- Centerville, Iowa
- Grand Junction, Colo.
- Georgetown, S.C.
- Bend, Ore.
- Bismarck, N.D.
- Saratoga, Wyo.
“The towns on this list are the dream places for outdoorsmen to live,” said John Taranto, senior editor of Outdoor Life. “They each offer a unique mix of hunting an fishing opportunities and based on that criteria any sportsman would be lucky to call one of these towns home.”
