Brett Harte wrote extensively of the mining towns and camps in old California. His tales were rife with them. It's been years since I read him, but I recall Poker Flat and Roaring Camp off the top of my head.
Poker Flat and Roaring Camp still exist in The Gold Country. So does Angel's Camp. I have an Aunt who lives in Sonora, Ca, in the heart of the Twaine/Harte region. There is in fact a town there called "Twaine/Harte". Many of these towns derive considerable of their current prosperity cheifly by dint of their names and the curiosities of passers-through. Memorobilial knick-knacks and quaintly named business establishments with similar themes abound.
timber
SnowFlake arizona high in the mountians is not the name for the weather but 2 men named Snow and Flake, Showlow arizona is named so because the 2 founding men played a game of poker to determine who was the originial founder.
There's a Jupiter, Florida and a Mars, Pennsylvania. Several years ago, I had a friend who lived in Mars (it's near Pittsburgh) and, when introducing her, we'd say she was V___ from Mars.
During our 2001 summer vacation, we visited Amish country in Pa. Of course, we had to visit Intercourse. I also very much liked Bird in Hand. My favorite has to be Hershey, Pa. It is really called after Mr. Hershey, the founder of the chocolate company.
In south Texas, shortly after passing through the town of Kennedy, you will come to the town of Nixon.
No need to bring your goggles and snorkel when you visit Beach, North Dakota.
FrenchLick, Indiana: home of Larry Bird
Lexington, Mass: "Shot heard round the world" fame
Speaking of Climax, Michigan, there's Staines, Surrey, England.
:wink: :wink: :wink:
place names
Cornwall has some unusual names - it was a 'chapel' area and has a place called Praze an Beeble and another called Rejerrah
Ratby near where i live is somewhere i wouldn't particularly fancy for an address
Tee Hee - I just looked at Quinns list and remember we used to call Stillorgan (in Ireland), Mickey Marbh. Marbh is Irish for "dead".
My home-town was Dublin in Ireland.
I was told that the name Dublin came from two Irish words - "Dubh" which translates as "Black" and "Linn" which means "Pool". So "Blackpool" being the name of the city because, presumably, at that time the river Liffey flowed through sludge and was pretty muddy.
However, while growing up, we were taught at school that the Irish for "Dublin" is "Baile Atha Cliath", but that actually means "city by the hurdle ford", this one presumably named because of a ford that overlooked the river Liffey. So the city/town was actually named twice, but lots of people think the Baile Atha Cliath is a direct Irish translation of Dublin, go figure!
Reading through this old thread, I concluded there must be lots more such stories out there. One interesting address I once had was Pipe Creek, sort of near Bandera.
We have a "Licking" Mo...I've always wondered what the citizens are called....Lickers?
My town was named after a guy, in the office of a railroad company back in New York. There was no town here at the time, it was just a railroad stop...perhaps a water tower for the train, and a house or two, but it had to have a name. The man never visited the town, or even Mo, as far as records show.
I've always kind of been slighted by this...
"Hey Jim, we need a name for this spot in Mo, can we name it after you"
"Is it gonna cost me any ting"
"Nah"
"What-eba, hey could somebody gets me a cannoli, I'm starvin in here"
I'm thinking a name change is in order...Stephville has a nice ring to it.
My favourite place name in Finland is Ii (The meaning of the word "ii" is lost in history). Most towns in Finland take their names from the natural surrondings like rivers, like my own town Tornio (from Swedish Torneå, which means "strong current river"), or from the name of the first settler in the area (those villages usually start with a name and end in "la", which means "place", so Mattila means "Matti's place"). A few towns were named after the fortress ("linna") around which they formed (like Hämeenlinna and Savonlinna). Quite many Finnish place names today are Finnish versions of original viking or Swedish names, e.g. Rauma on the west coast comes from the viking word "strauma", which means stream.
Unique are the places that still carry Sami names, like Inari. Those names too are usually based on the natural surroundings.
Fargo, North Dakota is named after the businessman William Fargo, co-founder of the bank company Wells Fargo and director of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
You'll hit Jackpot NV, as soon as you cross the state line going south on US 93.
littlek wrote:I used to know what T&C was called before the radio show, but I fogot. I do know that in that town is Elephant Butte - you got it, a butte that looks like an elephant. I have a picture somewhere....
I found out on NY's Eve why we pronounce Worcester as Worster - because that's exactly the way they say it in England. We held onto that pronounciation for how many hundreds of years?
we would say Worster as Warster
Worcester in UK is "wusster"
have any of you guys heard of Blubberhouses in Yorkshire?
or (god help us) Wetwang, also yorkshire?
Steve,
Now you've started something...!
I was quite content with Chipping Sodbury, Cold Christmas, and Oswaldtwistle until I passed the autobahn exit for Oberpfaffenhoffen.
