Is Eureka inspired by a real place?

There is likely no single real-world town that inspired the town of Eureka. It is arguably a mixture of two types of towns:

• A secretive government-run company town: Eureka is operated by a corporation called Global Dynamics (GD) that, due to the nature of the research done there, is overseen by the United States Department of Defense. The town's existence and location are therefore closely guarded secrets. This bears a great deal of similarity to the town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which was built in secret by the United States government for the Manhattan Project and controlled by the federal government until 1959.

• A small Northern-Pacific town: In a blog post on Idea Lab, show creator Jaime Paglia was asked and answered the following:

  Q: Have your own experiences in real life influenced the evolution of Eureka's plots, characters, and sci-tech ideas? If so, wanna share a few?

  A: On the character side, I think growing up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest was my biggest inspiration. There's something very unique about the dynamics of small town life. Everyone knows everyone's business. Connections run deep and when conflicts happen, there's nowhere to escape.

  In addition to the characters, there are a number of small-town features that the town of Eureka exhibits: a well-manicured main street filled with small independent local shops, numerous green spaces, statues, etc. As the Syfy site states, "A community was created to rival the most idyllic of America's small towns."

Oddly enough, the show appears to have inspired plans for a real-life Eureka-like city in New Mexico!