Strange Place Names

[ronjohn55]

Kalamazoo, MI!

John

 

[mudbug]

Goofy Ridge, in central Illinois. Just outside of Havana and not too far from San Jose (San Joe's).

 

[middie]

Oh whoa. Okay I found a couple in Ohio I never heard of. But with these names... I'm not so sure they should be posted lol.

 

[Barb L.]

Michigan

How about:
Trout Creek
Climax
Maybee
Bad Axe
Bath

 

[jpmcgrew]

Truth or Consequences,NM or T or C for the short version.

 

[Robo410]

Reform Alabama, and for Buck, there is Buck Pennsylvania. Also got a Gap, you guessed it, a gap in the mts where the train goes through, and a Climax too btw. Delaware has Blades, and Virginia has Angel Visit.

In Virginia the Mata river joins up with the Po and the Ni to form the Mataponi which joins the Paumunkey to form the York.

 

[oldcampcook]

And in Oklahoma, we have "Slap Out" in the panhandle, "Bugtussle" down in the south and "Lo****ah" and "Nowata". "Slick" is another small town. And you notice I live near "Mounds", named for a couple of small hills south of Tulsa.

 

[oldcampcook]

When I was a kid in Maryland, I lived in "Hollywood", which consisted of a grocery store, a gas station and about 3 houses.

 

[mudbug]

that would be in St. Mary's County, oldcampcook, yes? It's a little bigger now.

 

[AllenOK]

oldcampcook, believe it or not, I've been working on a research project now for several months, to locate ghost towns in OK. I did the same project when I lived up in Michigan as well, so many of the names some people are dropping are VERY familiar to me.

How about "Nuyaka", OK. Named as an adaptation of "New Yorker", if I remember right. Or "Goingsnake", Adair County, named after the name of the county in the Cherokee Nation. There is a "Remus" and "Romulus" Ok, as well as two towns by those names in Michigan. "Kay" County got it's name as when the Oklahoma Territory was originally divided up into counties, they were given letters, A, B, C, etc., until the residents changed it. Kay County was "K County", and the locals decided to keep it, with a spelling change.

I've been through Slapout 8 times. Just a wide spot in the road, and it made my Ghost Town list for this state.

I have more, but I'd have to spend a lot of time going through my list.

 

[oldcampcook]

Oklahoma Names

AllenOK,
There is a book out with Oklahoma Ghost Towns. I do not know who printed it or who the author was. I think I can contact an ole boy down in Marlow who might know.
Did you buy your tee-shirt in Slap-out? I about got into a brawl when I bought the last pink one for my daughter and some "furrnier" lady wanted it. LOL

Oh, gracious, I forgot about "Pink", pronounced "Pank", down by Shawnee.
And Maud and Bowlegs.

 

[oldcampcook]

Hollywood, Maryland

Mudbug,
Right on. We used to go into "town" on Saturday to do the weekly shopping. My folks spent a quarter on candy for the four of us kids.
Went back there about 6 years ago and all of the farms where we raised "baccy" and corn are all carved up into housing lots.
The lady who owns the place we lived was thrilled when I pointed out where the two holer outhouse was and the pig sty, etc. LOL

 

[AllenOK]

I've seen Oklahoma Ghost Towns, and I believe there's even a sequel.

Unfortunately, neither book lists ALL of them, and that's what I'm interested in.

I was just passing through Slapout, on my way out to New Mexico and back. Slapout got it's name because the proprietor of the general store would always say he was "slapout" of whatever it was that you wanted to buy.

There's "Eneho", in Canadian County, coined from the words Cheyenne and Arapaho.

There's also "Carter Nine", in Osage County, whose name comes from the Carter Oil Company, and the land description, Section 9, Township 26 North Range 6 East.

 

[oldcampcook]

Ghost Towns of Oklahoma

Boy, I wish I could remember all of the ghost towns I have gone thru while I was traveling throughout Oklahoma for 20 odd years. Lots of them down around Antlers and that area.

BTW, I finally found a 4 qt cast iron Dutch Oven and it is in the oven seasoning right now. Have no knead bread rising, so as soon as they both are done, into the oven!

 

[Mrs. Cuillo]

Virginia has a place named Staunton, though it is pronounced "Stanton", Fries, though pronounced "Frees", Spotsylvania, Big Island, Warm Springs (EEEWWW!!), Goochland, Gum Spring, Triangle, Rice, Cochran, Chase City, Tobaccoville, Ballsville, Jetersville, Dolphin, Warfield, Purdy, Triplet, Chuckatuck and any word with "ville" at the end, just to name a few. Who is responsible for naming these places?!?!

 

[Constance]

Here are some dandies I found online...they forgot Dogwalk and Pickle City.

Be-Ver Kreek, Illinois
Burnt Prairie, IL
Carlock, Illinois
Clinch, Illinois
Cow Bell Lane, IL
Energy, Illinois
Equality, Illinois
Fishhook, Illinois
Frog City, Illinois
Frogtown, Illinois
Garden of Eden, IL
Gas Light Village, IL
Gays, Illinois
Golf, Illinois
Goofy Ridge, Illinois
Grand Detour, Illinois
Half Day, Illinois
Hometown, Illinois
Hop Hollow, Illinois
Kickapoo, Illinois
Limerick, Illinois
Lost Nation, Illinois
Metropolis, Illinois
Normal, Illinois
Oblong, Illinois
Passport, Illinois
Pawnee, Illinois
Ring Neck, Illinois
Roachtown, Illinois
Sandwich, Illinois
Shawneetown, Illinois

 

[AllenOK]

Who is responsible for naming these places?!?!

Many times, it's the first person/family that settles an area, names it. They'll name it for many different reasons, either after someone in their family, the place they used to live (either in a different state, or back in the "old country"), etc. If the area was bought lock-stock-and-barrel, by a developer, platted and sub-divided, then sold off by parcel, many times, the original owner named it. Sometimes a "rural post office" is named after the first postmaster. A railroad depot might be named for a railroad official, sometimes even though the town's name is something different.

I've found this to be the same for both Oklahoma, and Michigan. I wouldn't be surprised if it's that way for the entire country.

Here's another one, for up in Michigan. Novi, MI. It is believed that the town's name came from the fact that it was located in Section #6 of that township, which at that time, would have been listed on a plat map as No. VI (roman numeral six).

Oldcampcook, I've found that there are literally hundreds of ghost towns in OK, and probably over a thousand in MI. Most are going to be a couple old homes at some little crossroads in the sticks, while the rest are going to be a "barren site", with nothing left showing, unless you know what to look for. Many of the "ghost towns" in western OK all started in the 1890's, and died a couple years later. They were settled in the Land Runs, and when the site proved to be to hard to make a living out of, the residents left.

I wouldn't be surprised, if some of the other folks looked around, at libraries, or online, that they'll find a placenames book for their state. I knew there was one for OK, and when I moved up to MI, quickly found out there was one there as well. Chock full of history.

 

[Claire]

I live in Illinois, and that has been covered. I've travelled the entire country, and love many of these places. In the midwest, I particularly love the lousy pronunciations of towns. Cairo (pronounced like the syrup), Papillion (pronounced puppy-yon), etc. There are so many of them it is a laugh. I just wonder sometimes how the pronunciations happened.

 

[Katie H]

I know what you mean, Claire. We live about 20 miles from Cairo (Karo). There's a town in the central part of our state that is spelled Versailles, which would normally be pronounced Ver-sigh. Instead, here, it's pronounced Ver-sales. Go figure.

 

[kyles]

I live in a town called Ramsbottom....

No it's nothing to do with a sheep's derriere

Rams comes from Ramson - the old Lancashire dialect name for the wild garlic that grew here back in the day.

And bottom is the Lancashire dialect for valley

Hence - valley of the wild garlic.