Baker City, the eastern Oregon city known best as a stop off Interstate 84 and as the filming location of Clint Eastwood's "Paint Your Wagon," is now vying for a new claim to fame: Coolest Small Town in America.

That title would come courtesy of Budget Travel, a travel website that's asking the public to crown the coolest little town in the U.S. As of this writing, Baker City sits in a comfortable second place in the voting with nearly two weeks to go, trailing only Sykesville, Maryland for the win.

Even as our Oregonian pride swells, it's important to remember that this is a popularity contest, pure and simple. The population of Baker City is more than double that of Sykesville, which might normally give it an edge if it weren't for the Maryland town's proximity to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

And when it comes to breathless state pride, those Marylanders can run with us Oregonians any day - don't even get them started on Old Bay.

But since this is a competition about which town is the coolest, let's put the flag-waving aside and ask ourselves a very important question: Is Baker City actually the coolest small town in America?

Here are the facts:

-Baker City was incorporated in 1874 as a pioneer-era trading center between Salt Lake City and Portland, named after U.S. Senator Edward D. Baker, the only sitting senator to be killed in a military engagement.

-In 1911 it dropped "City" from its name, becoming just Baker - smooth move - though it reinstated the original name in 1989.

-Downtown Baker City is home to Barley Brown's Brew Pub, one of the best breweries in Oregon.

-Baker City sits between the Wallowa Mountains to the east and the Blue Mountains to the west, and is located at the junction of three scenic highways that head out into the rugged wilderness.

-Clint Eastwood's 1969 film "Paint Your Wagon" was filmed near Baker City.

-The town was the home base for the U.S. Naval Observatory during the 1918 solar eclipse, drawing national attention.

-The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is only five miles east of town, teaching tourists that there's more to the Oregon Trail than dysentery and fording rivers.

And Sykesville? Well, it's home to an annual IceFest and John Waters filmed part of "Cry-Baby" there, so that's something.

Head over to Budget Travel and cast your vote, if you feel so moved, and help bring the title of Coolest Small Town in America out to Oregon. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 6.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB