***Noel, Missouri. ***
This used to be a great vacation town in the 1950s and 1960s. It began to go downhill around 1969 when a propane car on the KCS railway exploded one night. It was so loud it woke my dad up almost 23 miles away. I was in SE Asia but it did make the AFRTS news.
The new chicken processing plant was built, and moslem Somalis moved in to work at it with their usual demands. The town is a shell of it’s former self. Lots of abandoned motels all over the area.
Wonder if the workers will now get jobs at Southwest City MO, and what problems they will bring with them.
My SIL lives about 10 miles from Noel. It’s weird to go into a Missouri boondocks town and see all the businesses with signs in Arabic. She said the Somalis displaced the Mexicans who were there previously.