Regional scents
 

I am trying to find out about scents that are disctinctive and descriptive of certain regions in the USA, specifically:

Badlands, SD
Everglades, FL
Painted Desert, CA / NA
Smokey Mountains, or the Blue Ridge Mountains, NC / VA
Gulf Coast (Texas - Florida)
Sierra Nevada, CA
Thousand Lakes, MN
Grand Teton, WY
New England
Adirondacks, NY

Also, any other destination that might have a distinctive aroma from its native plants and flowers. Or, if anyone has any stories that evoke an aroma from a trip, that would be very interesting, too. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Many thanks

Is this some kind of school assignment, or what?

I've always thought Jacksonville, FL has a bad scent.

New England is on your list. How can you possibly assign one smell to New England? In Maine alone you're going to have a lot different scent on the coast than in the middle of an inland forest.

There's the lovely smell of car exhaust. Mmmmmmmm.

Badlands - bad
Everglades - Johnson Glade
Painted Desert - paint thinner
Smokey Mountains - smokey
Gulf Coast - you already know, so don't ask
Sierra Nevada - Sierra Mist
Thousand Lakes - water
Grand Teton - grand
New England - new
Adirondacks - well, don't know about this one, sorry.

:D

Eau de Savannah, GA= Union Camp Paper Company

Gulf Coast of Texas = le rig de oil :-D

What is this, the comedy channel?

Any useful suggestions?

Ok I'l give my limited experience to you:
NYCity: exhaust fumes mingled in with tabacco and perfume,
Boston: those lucky to have wood burning fireplaces sends me into nirvana
especially when the fruit woods are burning. And the smell of the first falling deep snow can not be described.
The scent of ripening apples in the fall in New england along with the Concord grapes is also a high for me.
The earth opening up in the spring, the scent of new loam and manure to enrich someone's small parcel of the earth, heaven!

no, not the comedy channel.... but neither is it a homework help center. tell more about what and why, and maybe you'll get more helpful responses.

The scent of roasting chestnuts is without a doubt, New York City.

and in my house!

Aren't these useful ?

I have to disagree with coldwar since I live in Jax Fl :D but I agree with seetheworld, those roasting nuts in NYC...mmmm...

Getting off the plane in Tucson one year, the air smelled sweet, like flowers.
Smokey Mts & Blue Ridge, woodsy dark and wet
Adirondacks, pine
New England, cold spicey cloves

There's no better smell in the world than driving through the citrus belt in Florida when the orange groves are in bloom. I'll take a trip there (at least an hour away from Tampa) if for no other reason than to take in the smell of the orange blossoms.

And the absolutely worst smell is in the cities where they process the juice -- sticky sweet lingering smell.

in my house meant roasting chestnuts. it'such a short few weeks when they are available. a helpful hint about buying because they are expensive and do not want you to waste your money. If the chestnut feels like there is a space between shell and flesh DO NOT BUY!!

That is excellent advice, cigalechanta! Gosh, I love roasted chestnuts!

Montana-- Smell of cordite from the militia

then there's the aroma of tacoma

During fall in New Hampshire you'll have the scent of leaves burning, followed by the wood stoves. And I agree with Cc, regarding the scent of apple orchards. It's distinctive and wonderful. Of course, in spring, it's the lilacs blooming (our state flower).

And all the gift shops smell of those pine sachets!

As a kid in southern NJ in the summer heat (just outside Philadelphia), I used to love the smell of hot tar and freshly sprayed mosquito poison. Scary!

John & repete....tears of laughter are running down my face, thanks for the laugh this morning! :-D

It's really hard to choose a specific scent for New England. Each area smells different, at different times of the year under different weather conditions.
Oddly enough, we found Alaska very fragrant in late June this year. I traced the smell to large patches of Cow Parsnip. Awful name but picture huge Queen Anne's Lace type of flowers.

Scarlett, I too lived in Jax & still visit. Haven't you gotten a whiff of the paper mill yet? It is not too often but a distinctive smell from time to time.

In NO the scent on Bourbon St is Pine Sol cleaner & alcohol. My favorite smell is across the lake in St Tammany Parish after the road crews have mowed. The fresh cut grass smells great.

Painted Desert = smells of dusty tea, think : chapparal.

Sierra Nevada = smells like crisp pine and diesel haze, depending on your footing.

Thousand Lakes = standing water & deerflies.

...and in Montana, the smell of Kalispell is downwind of Whitefish.

C'mon Tim Milne, what's up your sleeve?

I used to live in Jacksonville, FL, and remember the awful paper mill smell very well, and not fondly -- UGHH! Scarlett, you must not have been in Jax very long yet...or could you somehow be upwind?

However, sometimes the "good smell" was present; I thought it smelled like fresh toast, but was told it was coming from a coffee factory.

Here in Milwaukee, there is a strong odor of hops and barley roasting at the Miller Brewery as you travel west of downtown along I-94. Some days the smell is really strong!

Johanna, there are paper mills on Amelia Island, which is at least 45 minutes North from downtown Jax, so we never smell anything from there. If anyone else smells it, it might be Georgia.

If one is close to downtown/the river and Riverwalk, you will smell coffee :)
There is a huge Maxwell house coffee plant there..smells great!

Where I live, about 10 mintes from downtown, it smells like flowers mostly :)

Timmilne, this is your first and only post on Fodors and I "sniff" a bit of armchair product development or market research. Do we get a cut if you come up with just the right scents to sell to gifte shoppes in those palces you name?

Bunch? Is that you hiding in Timmy's screen name?

Something smells fishy. Post about a scent, the nerve.

As I remember Maine smells with lobster. Sometimes fresh, sometimes rotten. You know it crawls out of not properly closed cooking pots. So add the smell of burning lobster trying to escape. Nice bouquet, huh?

Boston has a socks smell all the time after the red sox won. Get a gas mask :)

Adirondacks: Wonderful pine scent in the summer. Snowmobile exhaust in the winter.