Trebor Maitin, Elisabeth Seidel and Remy Oktay sit on the bar stools, left to right, at Margaret’s Pub while visiting with owner Eric Garbes, standing.

It seems that many, if not most college students spend their spring break heading south to soak up the sun’s rays after a long winter. At the very least, if they are not going to a beach, they are finding some enjoyable way to relax and enjoy some time off from going to classes and studying.

Then there are three college students from Pennsylvania who decided to visit Easton. And not just the Easton located in Faribault County, but all cities named Easton in the United States.

It might sound a little far-fetched, but there is a reason for what some people may think is a ‘crazy’ idea.

The thing is, these three college students, Remy Oktay, Trebor Maitin and Elisabeth Seidel, are all students at Lafayette College, which is a private liberal arts college located in….you guessed it, Easton, Pennsylvania.

“We have a plan to visit all of the ‘other’ cities named Easton over a 10-day period,” Elisabeth says. “We hope to visit city officials at each of our stops.”

Trebor and Elisabeth are both writers for the Lafayette College school newspaper called The Lafayette.

Neither of us are journalism majors,” Trebor clarifies. “But we both write for the paper.”

Trebor, a senior, is working on a government and law major and an Asian studies minor but has aspirations of becoming a political journalist.

Elisabeth is a sophomore who is interested in anthropology.

And what possessed these young writers to do a story on all of the Eastons?

“Trebor and I actually came up with the idea,” Elisabeth comments.

The pair had previously collaborated on a research story, ‘Chocolate chip cookie crawl: A quest for the best in Easton.’

“We decided it was important to determine who made the best chocolate chip cookie in our town of Easton,” Elisabeth says, smiling. “We had a rating system where we used one milk bottle for the poorer cookies and five milk bottles for the better cookies.”

Once that story had been published, Trebor and Elisabeth started throwing out ideas for other possible stories. When the idea of visiting all of the other towns named Easton which are located in the United States was mentioned, they knew they were onto something.

“We decided to visit only the Eastons which were incorporated into towns and villages and that we would not visit unincorporated villages carrying the Easton name,” Trebor explains. “That still left us with 14 to 15 towns to visit.”

And that is where Remy comes in.

Remy, a senior working on an engineering degree, is a pilot and has a four-seat airplane he and his sister inherited from their grandfather when he died.

“Trebor and I had worked together when Lafayette College hosted the first-ever electric plane flyover at a college football game,” Remy shared. “We found someone to finance the trip but did not settle on going until two days before our first stop.”

While Trebor and Elisabeth researched the towns they were going to visit to obtain contact information for city officials, Remy worked to locate airports as close as possible to the Eastons they were going to visit.

“So far we have visited cities named Easton in Kansas, Missouri and Texas,” Remy notes. “Next, I will fly us to Wisconsin to visit two different towns both having the name of Easton.”

The group had made arrangements to meet city clerk Rose Doyle at the Easton Community Center/City Office.

One of the first questions Rose was asked was whether she considered herself an ‘Eastonite,’ an ‘Eastoner,’ or maybe an ‘Eastonian?’

It was a question she had no immediate answer for.

“I guess I have always just said I’m from Easton,” she replied after giving the question some thought. “I have lived here a long time. It’s just home.”

Rose gives a brief history of the town and shares how government grant money had helped the city replace much of its underground infrastructure as well as giving the city some nice new streets and sidewalks.

“This is an agriculture community, but it has changed over the years because the families are not as large as they used to be,” Rose says. “When my husband died, I could have left but I decided to stay because of the people who make up this community.”

She stresses to the students it is the people who make Easton such a great place to be.

“The houses are well kept and we take care of each other,” Rose comments. “If someone has a problem or a need, there is somebody else there to help that person.”

After Rose presented the trio with T-shirts and mugs commemorating Easton’s 150th anniversary, the group presented Rose with a pennant from Lafayette College which was signed by the college’s president and Rose added her signature to a pennant the group was getting signed at every town.

Next, Remy, Trebor and Elisabeth started walking towards Margaret’s Pub, but before they could get there, Rich Pahl, who works in Easton’s Post Office, stepped out to the street to chat with the young people and share more stories of Easton people being helpful.

They resumed their journey once again only to have someone who was driving by in a van stop and say hello and visit for awhile.

The group finally was able to complete the short walk to Margaret’s Pub and although the establishment was not open for business that day, co-owner Eric Garbes shared the story of his business along with talking about the historical pictures of Easton, which adorn the walls of Margaret’s Pub.

Next, the group ventured east to The Country Butcher Shop where owner Joel Sonnek talked about the decision to move his business into Easton from its former country home.

“We needed more room and this building was available,” Sonnek says. “And, if you notice, every building on Main Street is being used. So, while Easton may be a small town, there is actually a lot going on.”

Trebor, Remy and Elisabeth left The Country Butcher Shop for their next stop but not before being give a couple packages of beef sticks and more T-shirts.

Unfortunately, Easton’s bridal shop, The Silhouette, was not open that day, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church was locked, but the group did look inside the church through the windows.

“It’s beautiful,” Trebor remarks. “It reminds me of the cathedrals I saw when I was in Europe.”

After having their picture taken by the Easton city sign, which sits on the south side of town, Remy, Trebor and Elisabeth headed back to Blue Earth for lunch and to talk about their experience and how Easton, Minnesota compared to the other cities of Easton they had visited so far.

“One thing we have learned is the mayors of these small towns wear many hats,” Trebor commented. “Rose mentioned the mayor of her town actually works in Mankato.”

Elisabeth shares the story of the different jobs the mayor of Easton, Texas had.

“First of all, he is only paid $50 per month to be the mayor,” she notes. “He is also the water commissioner, assistant fire department chief, captain of the San Antonio Fire District, and the Park Board president, besides owning and operating a lawn care business. He is also a machinist and a licensed EMT.”

Another common thread among the four cities they have visited so far is all of the mayors they have talked to said they did not want the job.

“But, they also did not want someone to take the job who wasn’t going to work hard for the city,” Trebor adds. “So, they ran for the position.”

They note that Easton, Pennsylvania, where they go to college, is much larger than the Easton they just visited.

In fact, the latest U.S. Census figures reveal Easton, Pennsylvania has a population of over 28,000 while Easton, Minnesota has 179 residents living in the town.

“The practical goal of this journey is to write an article about all of the different towns and their different personalities,” Trebor says. “We want to open the eyes of our fellow citizens of Easton, Pennsylvania to other people who are living in other parts of our country with lifestyles that may be different than what they are used to.”

They have already had some interesting experiences on their trip including using a courtesy vehicle which had headlights that could not be turned off and windshield wipers that flew off of the vehicle.

“And there was that jail in Kansas that had been converted into a restroom,” Remy comments. “That was different.”

Overall, as a group they say they are making good memories, even if no one has been able to answer the question of whether they are an ‘Eastonite,’ an ‘Eastoner,’ or an ‘Eastonian.’

“But, we have learned Easton, Minnesota looks like it would be a nice place to live with friendly people who look out for each other,” Elisabeth concludes. “It might be the nicest Easton we have visited so far.”