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Agloe sign.

Welcome to Agloe!

Field review by the editors.

Roscoe, New York

The town of Agloe, New York, never existed, except in the imagination of the 1930s General Drafting Company. It was invented as a "copyright trap" -- a fake "paper town" whose appearance on anyone else's road map would prove that its information had been stolen. But it failed to work because a shopkeeper saw the name on a map and decided to open a general store there, making it, at least legally, a real place.

The store went out of business and Agloe was forgotten for decades -- until it was resurrected in the 2008 novel, Paper Towns. Soon thereafter an anonymous fan made a professional-looking "Welcome to Agloe!" sign and nailed it to a telephone pole near the former site of the general store.

It's been an attraction ever since.

Welcome to Agloe!

Address:
8542 NY-206, Roscoe, NY
Directions:
From Roscoe drive north on NY-206 for 2.5 miles. The road bends right and you'll go over a small bridge. The pole is about a quarter-mile past this, on the right. If you pass Beaverkill Valley Rd you've driven too far.
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