The Magic Capital of the World (2014) – Most Magical place in the USA
Colon, Michigan, is a sleepy, one-streetlight town somewhere between Detroit and Chicago that proudly bills itself as “The Magic Capital of the World.” (The name comes from a pair of nearby lakes shaped like the punctuation mark.) It’s home to around 1,000 residents and holds at least 30 dead magicians in its single small graveyard. The Colon High School mascot is a giant bunny rabbit. Though it lacks the soaring Gothic cathedrals of Hogwarts, it just might be the most magical place in the United States.
For the past 80 years, Colon has hosted Abbott’s Magic Get Together, an annual gathering of several hundred magicians from all over the world who convene for a week of shows, lectures, and trick-jamming. At night, tipsy magicians mingle in bars and restaurants along Colon’s single block of downtown, practicing their craft on passersby. The Get Together is less a conference and more a “family reunion,” as nearly every person I spoke to there referred to it.
But like any good family reunion, the Get Together has its share of drama. Infighting over the town’s magical heritage has made it harder for aging magicians to cooperate in attracting new members to their community. And modern, everyday technology — not to mention the proliferation of the internet — has made it harder for magic to seem… well, magical. Still, when you throw hundreds of born-and-bred entertainers into this mecca of illusions, you’re bound to get a party.
via The Verge
