Best water in rural America is in Curtis, Neb., says the National Rural Water Association

Frontier County, home of Curtis (Wikpedia)

If you're ever in Curtis, Neb., make sure to sample the water. Forget any culinary delights the town might offer, or any tourist attractions or historical sites, the water is where it's at. The National Rural Water Association on Wednesday named the town with a population of 935 as being the winner of its 2014 Great American Water Taste Test, proclaiming Curtis as having the best water in rural America.

A silver medal was awarded to Stansbury Park, Utah, and a bronze to Callaway County Public Service District 2 in Fulton, Mo. Fourth and fifth place went to  Shenandoah, Va., and Point Sebago Outdoor Resort in Casco, Maine. The association said "each finalist was selected from a preliminary tasting that included entries from every state in the nation. Each state rural water association conducts an annual water taste test, and the winners qualify for entry in the national taste test." (Read more)

Curtis "gets its water from two deep wells drilled into the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest freshwater aquifers in the world," Algis Laukits reports for the Lincoln Star Journal. Mayor Kevin Brown told Laukits, "We do not treat our water. There's no chlorination. It comes straight out of the wells straight to people's taps." (Read more)