Earlier this month I happened to see a new book at the Albert Lea Public Library.

And just how new is this book? It has a 2009 copyright date and even mentions the flood of June 2008 down in Iowa. Now, that’s new.

The title of this book is , “Don’t Go There!” It’s described as “the travel detective’s essential guide to the must-miss places of the world,” and written by Peter Greenberg, the travel editor for NBC’s “Today” show.

After checking out this book, published by Rodale Press, I decided to see if any Minnesota localities were on Greenberg’s don’t go there list. To my surprise, about the only Minnesota names to come up were International Falls, Minneapolis and Fountain. We’ll deal with those first two places later, but first let’s concentrate on the Fountain factor.

Now, before the local promoters get too excited, Greenberg isn’t referring to our less-than-pristine Fountain Lake.. Instead, he focused his attention on a locality named Fountain over in Fillmore County and about four miles to the north of Preston.

This community with a population of 367, according to the 2000 Census, originally called itself the “Sink Hole Capitol of the U.S.A.” In fact, Greenberg even used an illustration of this town’s first brochure in his book. However, there’s a real definition error with this slogan. The word capitol refers to a building. Now the Web site for Fountain more correctly declares that this town is the “Sink Hole Capital of the U.S.A.”

Right about here would the logical place to explain just what a sink hole is. It’s a deep hole in the ground formed by water gradually eroding the limestone underlying this part of the state. When the water creates a cave or cavern, the roof sometimes gives way and the ground above drops down to form the hole or depression.

There are quite a number of sink holes around the Fountain area. Some have been logically fenced off to keep people and critters out of these deep places. A few have been filled in, and all too often in the past these parts of the landscape have been used as handy places to dump trash. Sadly, this last part never helped the ground water quality in Fillmore County.

The age-old process of water wearing away the limestone has resulted in quite a few caves and underground streams in Fillmore County. One example is Mystery Cave, located somewhat to the south of Wykoff, which has been combined with the nearby historic village of Forestville to create a state park. Near Harmony is Niagara Cave which is an excellent weekend destination. Yet, this place with its 60-foot waterfall within the cavern which also has a wishing well and crystal wedding chapel doesn’t even rate being designated on the official state map.

OK, why did Greenberg select Fountain as one of three places in Minnesota for his don’t go there listing? The answer can be found on page 250 under the heading of ”Lame Claims To Fame.” and category of “silly nicknames and capitals.”

This negative commentary could be the real pits for the folks over in Fountain.

On page 252 of his book Greenberg salutes International Falls under the category of “stupid events” for its Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard 5K or 10K run, snow sculpting and frozen turkey bowling. He somehow missed the slogan of “Icebox of the Nation.”

Minneapolis is mentioned on page 102 of Greenberg’s book for its association with Northwest Airlines and the less-than-adequate seating on some of their aircraft.

In reality, Greenberg’s book has quite a list of logical places to avoid in both the U.S. and the rest of the world. His selections of don’t go there destinations include locations with air, water and toxic pollution. Then there are his choices of worst airlines, airports, hotels, cruises, trains, highways and even theme parks. And for folks who follow the news at all, there happen to be all too many dangerous cities and nations worth avoiding which are featured in his book.

Anyway, his selection of Fountain, the town with all those sink holes and not our local lake, gave me material for still another column.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.