Why are some places missing from US Census Gazetter data?

Question

I'm looking at the file I downloaded from the US Census here (2010 Census Gaz Places data), and I notice that a lot of cities are missing. For example, Montague, MA is completely missing. However, I see on their FactFinder site here that they collected data on the town in the 2010 census. Is Gazatter data incomplete, or am I looking at the wrong data?

damaya@deepthought:~/database_stuff$ grep Montague Gaz_places_national.txt 
CA  0648690 02411140    Montague city   25  A   1443    633 4604514 39459          1.778           0.015     41.727088  -122.530511                                                                                          
MI  2655100 01626757    Montague city   25  A   2361    1182    6617559 1839755        2.555           0.710     43.413308   -86.364269                                                                                       
TX  4849032 02586961    Montague CDP    57  S   304 135 3304589 0          1.276           0.000     33.665270   -97.720954

damaya@deepthought:~/database_stuff$

Answer 1

Montague, MA will not show up on the Places Gazetteer files because it is not recognized as an incorporated city. The Census recognizes it as a subdivision of a county. It also alternatively recognizes it as a Census Defined Place (CDP) which is the designation for unincorporated areas. You want this file instead.