My hometown is Alamogordo, NM.
1) The Atari graveyard is located in the local landfill. (Although some rumors say it's just in the desert covered with concrete, as opposed to the landfill.)
2) The Iraq scenes for Transformers 1 & 2 were filmed at White Sands National Monument, which is about 15 minutes outside of town.
3) The scene where Sam first meets Bumblebee in the first Transformers movie was filmed at an abandoned factory at the end of 10th St (of which the numbered streets only go to 28.) Members of the Air Force stationed at Holloman Air Force base (about 5 minutes out of town) served as extras, as well as the pilots for most of the flight scenes.
4) "Water Runs Dry" video by Boyz II Men was filmed at White Sands as well.
5) Ham, the Chimpanzee who was first sent into space was trained at Holloman Air Force Base. Ham stands for "Holloman Aero Medical." His body is buried at the Space Museum in town.
6) In 1982, the Space shuttle landed at White Sands Space Harbor, on a dry lakebed.
7) John Paul Stapp, the man who rode the rocket sled (and also did testing on the unmaned ones) did his work at Holloman as well.
8) The longest parachute free-fall was set during the 60s as part of project excelsior. (The rocket sled testing and project excelsior were all projects for testing the forces exerted on fighter pilots. The modern flight suit was also developed here.)
9) While I was in high school (2001, maybe), a local pastor lead his congregation in a book burning that made national news. They focused specifically on Harry Potter, but also burned the Stars Wars books, works by Tolkien, and Shakespeare.
Fairly interesting for an town of about 38,000.
For a teenager though, it is boring as hell.
