Andrew Nagorski wrote this piece for the Polish edition of Newsweek

You probably think you know about all the popular travel destinations in the United States—and you may have visited many of them already. For big cities, there’s New York, of course, and Washington, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Then there’s the Grand Canyon, and the national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. For pure entertainment and relaxation, there’s Las Vegas and Florida. All fine, but there’s something missing here. Unless you’ve heard of Branson, Missouri, you’re not quite the expert you thought you were.

No worries, though: most New Yorkers and Californians have never heard of Branson either. For them, it’s also terra incognita. But in what’s known as middle America, the heartland of the country, just about everyone knows about Branson--a town in the Ozark Mountain region of southwest Missouri, with a population of only 7,500 people that attracts about eight million visitors a year. It is the live music capital of the country, where 53 theaters offer more than 100 shows, filling an extraordinary proportion of their 59,757 seats—more theater seats than are available on Broadway. While renowned for its music, Branson now also features Chinese circus acts, comedy shows, and, just outside town, the enormous Silver Dollar City amusement park. Except for the quiet period from mid-December to mid-March, the area is clogged with visitors, who spent an estimated $1.7 billion there last year.

The explanation for why Branson is so popular in the heartland and so little known elsewhere lies in its modest origins and its continuing distinctive appeal to Americans who believe in “old-fashioned” values of God and country. Until the middle of the last century, it was just another small Missouri town, whose main attraction to outsiders was the superb bass and trout fishing opportunities in its scenic lakes. Then, in 1959, four brothers decided to put on a show to entertain the fishermen in the evenings. Calling themselves the Baldknobbers, they used homemade instruments—a washtub, washboard, the jawbone of a mule and other devices—to play country and hillbilly music.

Now, a half century later, country music is still big in Branson, but the town’s promoters are quick to point out that the explosion of new theaters and shows that has accelerated in the decades since includes everything from Gospel, Rock ‘n Roll and Broadway-style musicals to Japanese fiddler Shoji Tabuchi and Russian-American comedian Yakov Smirnoff. “Only in America could a Japanese fiddler and a Russian comedian have theaters of their own in the Ozarks,” Smirnoff, who arrived with his family from the Soviet Union in 1977, tells his appreciative audiences.

But even with the newer entries that give Branson more variety, entertainers like Smirnoff are quick to admit that the region still retains its provincial feel, despite a construction boom that has produced new shopping malls and a proliferation of condo complexes. “Coming from Russia to America was hard, but moving from Los Angeles to Branson was a lot harder,” he jokes. Brad Wilcox, who is in his second year as a member of the Twelve Irish Tenors, one of the popular current shows, says in all seriousness: “If you’ve been in big cities, it’s a quite a culture shock.” Still, the enthusiasm of the audiences makes young singers like him more than happy to give their careers a boost there. “It’s great,” he adds with equal sincerity.

The cultural divide is apparent from the moment you step into any of the shows, many of which run morning, afternoon and evening. First, although there are shows geared to appeal to all generations, the audiences are usually heavily dominated by seniors, “empty nesters” of the baby boom generation and older. They are attracted to both country music and the impressively talented impersonators of the singing stars they grew up with: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Liza Minnelli, the Platters and the Beatles, among others. Top among original singers is Andy Williams—who, at 82, can still carry a tune like other crooners of his generation once did. He has played to packed houses in his Moon River Theater since 1992.

Then there are the unabashed appeals to patriotism and religion in a region which is very much part of America’s Bible belt, the traditional stronghold of evangelical Christians. At some point during almost every show, the entertainers ask the veterans to stand—and the audience to applaud them. Flags abound and so do declarations of “God Bless America.” While public celebrations of Christmas have been steadily secularized in other parts of the country, the annual Christmas procession in Branson in early December is all about “putting Christ back into Christmas.”

Even performers from elsewhere soon begin sounding like that they’ve absorbed the local culture. A promotional brochure quotes Bill Medley, one of the Righteous Brothers, the hit duo of the 1960s and 1970s, as saying: “When I started my solo career, I believe God told me to come to Branson and sing with my kids. I’m a Southern California guy, but the Ozarks is truly magical.” If there are political jokes, they are almost always at the expense of Barack Obama these days. After Andy Williams thanked a pair of Russian dancers who put on a remarkable show of lightening costume switches in the midst of their twirls, he remarked: “They change their clothes faster than Obama changes his positions.”

For anyone traveling from as far as the East Coast or—and this is still extraordinarily rare—Europe, Branson offers a glimpse of a very different America than the standard destinations do. Like in many places in the South and Midwest, the local sporting goods store sells not only top-of-the-line fishing rods but a staggering array of shotguns, with stuffed game on display demonstrating what they can be used for. Everything—from the shows to the motels and restaurants—are designed for average Americans on modest budgets, who want to get the most for their money.

And they do. Show tickets usually run about $30, a fraction of what they would cost on Broadway or in Las Vegas. Special Christmas shows sometimes cost more, but even something like the one put on by Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, which featured fabulous riders on 37 horses and included dinner for each of the 1100 people in the audience, cost $52. Dinner, by the way, included soup, biscuits, corn on the cob, two main courses--a whole rotisserie chicken and pork loin—and dessert, all of which you eat with your hands. The manger scenes in these shows included live animals, from sheep and goats to donkeys and camels. And at the Sight and Sound Theater’s “Miracle of Christmas” show, Romans on horseback charged up the aisles, and the actors and animals performed on a lavish stage that extended around three sides of the huge 2,085-seat theater.

The restaurants in town make sure their customers never leave hungry. At Shoney’s restaurant, waitress Valerie Eden laughed off a question about the possibility of smaller portions. “We don’t know anything else but big here,” she said. The cost of a mammoth lunch buffet: $8.99. And while Branson now boasts its own airport since May to draw more visitors from afar, the local people retain their habits of hard work and friendly service, and continue to keep an attachment to an older way of life. Eden, our waitress, explained that when she visits her parents on their small farm outside of town, her mother always asks her to milk the cows. “By machine?” I asked. She laughed again: “No, by hand.”

True, much of the development—the cheap motels, garish billboards for shows, and attractions like the Hollywood Wax Museum with its hideous exterior featuring a giant three-dimensional mural of John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and other icons—can make the “sophisticated traveler” squeamish. But don’t make the mistake of judging everything by its façade. The Titanic Museum and the Veterans Memorial Museum both look tacky from the outside, but they feature highly informative, well-planned exhibits that are well worth viewing.

Nothing speaks with more dignity—and more resonance—than the display about World War II in the Veterans Memorial Museum. In one room, a bronze sculpture of 50 life-size American soldiers storming a beach—one representing each state—makes for an imposing sight. The work of Fred Hoppe, a veteran who made a daring rescue of a wounded fellow GI near German lines, the sculpture is surrounded by four walls filled with the names of the more than 400,000 Americans who died in World War II. Then there are additional surprises: the original silver brush and tea set of Eva Braun, and a tea set of Herman Goering, war loot now all contributing to the richness of this museum.

You can also still engage in Branson’s older forms of recreation: fishing, boating, waterskiing. And now, like so many other resorts, it also boasts golf courses, health spas and outlet malls. But the real reason to come to Branson is what makes it a novel experience: it represents an America that most Europeans have only distantly heard about, and many Americans have completely forgotten. And, yes, this journey into the past is also pure, unadulterated fun.

Nagorski is vice president and director of public policy at the EastWest Institute and author of “The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of World War II.”