Favorite Town names

Subject: Favorite Town names
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 May 02 - 06:02 AM

Not all colorful town names have been neutered. Two of my favorites in the Midwest are Purgatory, Minnesota (got it's name because it was so swampy that when settlers were asked how they got to western Minnesota, they said they had to go through purgatory to get there and the name stuck,)and Eden Prairie, Minnesota. My Uncle Harold lived in Eden Prairie. Only a Midwesterner would envision Eden as being on the prairie instead of a garden. Blue Earth, Minnesota sounds kinda pretty, too. Don't know where it got it's name. There's a black Earth in Wisconsin. How about Half Moon, in New York State?

Any favorites?

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: RangerSteve
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:27 AM

Ong's Hat, NJ. Actually, it was never more than a tavern, and now the tavern is gone. But the town still is listed on the official state road maps. Devils Half Acre in PA, which is only slightly bigger than its name implies. It's early, I'll think of more later.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:51 AM

If we're including villages: In Scotland -
Lost
Throsk - (which I always imagine as sounding rather like a disease that sheep might get)
Achiltibuie

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Murph10566
Date: 10 May 02 - 08:35 AM

I always thought this was an interesting juxtaposition:

Climax, NY - very near Paradise Hill, NY...

Coincidence, or something more darkly sinister ?

M.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 10 May 02 - 08:39 AM

I saw on the back of a truck that there's a place called Angoisse in the Dordogne - France.
Could translate as 'Angst' or 'Anguish'. Must be twinned with Purgatory..

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: CarolC
Date: 10 May 02 - 08:40 AM

I used to live just outside of Accident, Maryland (US).

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Butch at work (cookieless)
Date: 10 May 02 - 08:56 AM

Bucksnort, Tenn. is my favorite and it has a grwat little diner.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 10 May 02 - 09:18 AM

well, they appear as towns in a few states, but there is a Normal, Illinois and a Saline Illinois, and a headline in a local paper read 'Saline Woman to Wed Normal Man'

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Bobert
Date: 10 May 02 - 09:31 AM

Now I'm not sure if this is a real town or not but Bob Martin has a song about it being the "toilet seat capitol of the world". Ahhhh, ol' Bobert almost ain't got Spawzer'z chromozones so this one ain't easy, but it's Frog Dick, South Dakota. "Ya' they make 'em out of plastic now... Used to make 'em out of wood... Mama says the new ones... Don't fit the way they should..."

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 10 May 02 - 09:32 AM

every teenage boys favorite is Intercourse (PA that is!) and there is a Harmony PA, so an imagined but entirely possible sports page headline might read

A Good Harmony Beats Intercourse

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 May 02 - 09:42 AM

when driving along a road in kent[uk] i passed signpost on a junction, giving directions to 'Ham' to the right, and 'Sandwich' to the left

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Peg
Date: 10 May 02 - 10:02 AM

I once saw a postcard of Strange But True Town Names, superimposed over a 48-state map of the USA, and three of the towns near where I grew up were on it! (Horseheads, Painted Post, and Big Flats, all in western New York state). I am fond of Halfmoon, too...

peg

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Kim C
Date: 10 May 02 - 10:12 AM

Bumpass, VA

Gnawbone, IN

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 10 May 02 - 10:23 AM

my friend Ken Waldman, Alaska's Fiddling Poet, has a number of pieces he does about his time spent in Eek, Alaska;

and I am not all that far from Hicksville, Ohio

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Homeless
Date: 10 May 02 - 11:20 AM

A couple weeks ago I drove thru Gnaw Bone, IN on the way home from a festival in French Lick, IN.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: mack/misophist
Date: 10 May 02 - 11:23 AM

My favorite of all time is in Scotland - Unthank. There's been a few times I'd like to do that. Also Dime Box and New Dime Box in Texas.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Leeder
Date: 10 May 02 - 11:33 AM

There is a Climax, Saskatchewan. The Romaniuk Brothers used to ask, as part of their stage act, "Anybody been to Climax?"

I like Moose Factory, Ontario. (A "factory" is a Hudson's Bay Co. trading post, and this one is on the Moose River. But the modern usage conjures up interesting images.)

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 May 02 - 11:35 AM

My very first hometown, in Oregon, was Amity. In Virginia, it was Stuarts Draft.

Guest/Bill Kennedy, Robin Hopper, a musician from Chugiak, has a very popular song she calls 'I've Been Everywhere- in Alaska' She has well over 100 Alaska place names in it, including Eek, of course; she says it took her more than two years to memorize the whole thing.

Ed Schoenfeld, a local songwriter, wrote one he calls 'I've Been Everywhere- in Douglas'. Douglas is the island neighborhood of Juneau.

My favorite town name to pronounce is 'Igegik'.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: brid widder
Date: 10 May 02 - 12:26 PM

Keith Donnelly talks about a village in Essex UK called Ugley...and nearby Ugley Green....not too far away, in Hertfordshire there's a Nastie....it had to happen... "Nasty man marries Ugley Green woman"

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 May 02 - 12:31 PM

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, I thought was a joke till I got there...!

And we have a road called - no kidding- Pinch'm Slyly, or is that a different thread?

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 May 02 - 12:33 PM

brid

and of course there's always the ugley women's institute!

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 May 02 - 12:47 PM

Jerry Rasmussen speculated about the meaning or origin of "Blue Earth" Minnesota. I'm originally from Minnesota (Rochester), and was told that "Blue Earth" is simple description of local soil (or maybe rock). Pipestone, Minnesota, incidentally, was what you might call "international holy ground" for the Indians, because it was here that was located the quarry for the soft, carvable red rock used to make what we palefaces call "peace pipes", more accurately termed "calumets". This stone is easily carvable as it comes out of the ground, and hardens thereafter, I suppose from exposure to air. This holy area was distinguished by the peace with which people from many different tribes, even blood enemies, maintained when meeting there, and by intertribal understanding of peaceable access, even through hostile territory.

And then there's Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. This was named for a famous Indian chief.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 10 May 02 - 12:52 PM

I have a couple of tablets of writing paper from Sleepy Eye, with the image of the chief. Lovely town, I was there a few years back during an annual? town tag sale, good lunch and friendly people, nearby is one of the Laura Wilder Ingalls homesteads, if memory serves

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 10 May 02 - 01:04 PM

Actually Happiness the Ugley womens institute is now the Womens institute for Ugley Women which they thought sounds better!!! Of course in Yorkshire we have Idle and the Idle Working Mens Club. In Kent there is a place called Pratts Bottom.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 10 May 02 - 01:10 PM

Wyre Piddle (Worcestershire, England), not far from Wick.

Pete

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 10 May 02 - 01:38 PM

My mother-in-law was born in a place called Wideawake, Saskachewan.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 May 02 - 01:45 PM

I've always liked Spital-in-the-Street (Lincolnshire, England)

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 10 May 02 - 03:28 PM

Someone already mentioned Gnaw Bone, Indiana. Gnaw Bone is pretty close to Needmore, Indiana.

To be more precise, it is near ONE of the THREE Needmores in Indiana! The one in question is more or less between Columbus and Nashville--Indiana. Then there's another Needmore near Terre Haute, and yet another in the northern part of the state.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 May 02 - 03:49 PM

For my family in Wisconsin, nothing beats a week in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. My parents went up there every summer for years, and I have a nephew who has a cabin up there. The name always tickled me. It pretty much explains what there is to do up there for excitement. "Hey, Maude, want to go out and look at the boulders this weekend? :-)

If you really get bored, you can drive west and spend the day exploring the wonders of Moose Junction in Wisconsin, over near the Missiossippi.`

If you like trees, you might drive east and go to Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin.

Or drive north to Cornucopia, where life is overflowing.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 02 - 04:16 PM

Near York there is Askham Bryan. If he won't answer the next village is Askham Richard!

On my way back from Portsmouth I sometimes pass 'Worlds End' - I'm kind of scared to visit it!

Just look though an English gazeteer and I'm sure you will come up with loads of better ones though. Better still have a look at Douglas Adams 'Book of Lif' and you will find some great explanations for the place names!!!

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Lyle
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:00 PM

There are two towns in north central Iowa named Manly and Fertile. People were always hoping for a headline, Manly man marries Fertile woman.

Lyle

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Shields Folk
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:07 PM

How about No Place, County Durham?

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Shields Folk
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:12 PM

A sense of humour is needed to live in Durham especially in a place called Pity Me.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:13 PM

Some from N.E. England ... Pity Me, Legg's Cross Hill; Snotterton; Appleton Whisk (near Danby Whisk);

Someone mentioned Unthank earlier, but I think it's in Cumbria, not Scotland. There's a place in Scotland called 'Rest-and-be-thankful' though ... corker, that one ;o)

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Shields Folk
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:14 PM

Mind you north of the Tyne you have Benton, Long Benton and even Little Benton!

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:20 PM

Another from County Durham ... Bitchburn

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Annraoi
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:25 PM

Australia is full of wonderful sounding names like "Woolongong" "Burumbidgee" etc. Ireland has a wealth of Anglicised versions of Gaelic names which foreigners struggle in vain to pronounce:
Portglenone, Ahoghill, Tamneyaskey, Aghafatten, Brackaghlislea etc.
Annraoi

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 10 May 02 - 05:42 PM

Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

If they ever built a college, they could call it "Good old Fuck U."

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: weepiper
Date: 10 May 02 - 06:26 PM

Talking of placenames that sound like sheep diseases (Scabby Doug mentioned Throsk earlier) I've always held a fond spot in my heart (someone has to) for Scrabster - where the ferry to Orkney leaves from near John O'Groats.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Devilmaster
Date: 10 May 02 - 06:51 PM

Just a couple from the Great White North:

Ecum Secum, NS
Conception Bay, NF
Moose Jaw, SK
Medicine Hat, AB


Steve

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:18 PM

You want funny names? We got funny names in Minnesota: Climax, Fertile (They aren't far apart. Legendary headline: "Fertile Woman Dies in Climax"), Bird Island, Bible College, Borup, Coon Rapids, Embarrass (often the coldest place in the nation. I think they hold the record for the "lower 48"), Motley (I think that's where that crew comes from), Pillager, Savage, Sleepy Eye (named after an Indian).

There are a lot of Indian-language names: Ah Gwah Ching, Biwabik, Chaska, Chokio, Kandiyohi, Keewatin, Mahnomen, Mahtomedi, Minnetonka, Nisswa, Okabena, Onamia, Osseo, Owatonna, Shakopee, Wabasha, Wabasso, Waconia, Wadena, Wanamingo, Winnebago, Winona, Zumbrota. All of these are potential pitfalls for TV and radio announcers who move here from another state. Rule of thumb: the emphasis is nearly always on the penultimate syllable. Ona'mia and Shak'opee are the only exceptions in this list.

There are some euphonious ones, too. My favorites: Blooming Prairie, Stillwater, Comfrey, Marine on Saint Croix, Pipestone, Red Wing, Redwood Falls, Rollingstone.

There is a song about Minnesota town names:CHAPSTICKS, by Lou & Peter Berryman.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:21 PM

Red Wing's a great old town, too... drove through it last fall, coming down the Mississippi River on the Minnesota side.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:39 PM

Up until about 20 years ago there was still a few houses and a post office where folks would occasionally have their mail camcelled just for the postmark. It was on the river west of Chattanooga.....Suck Creek, Tennessee.

Bill Kennedy......I thought all towns in NW Ohio are called Hicksville, especially being so close to Indiana and all........

I think Kentucky has some nice ones. Driving across through Hazard (which isn't far from Jean Ritchie's birthplace of Viper) to Pikeville, you pass through some wide spots in the road with the names of Fisty, Dwarf, and Thousand Sticks, before arriving in the "metroplolis" of Mousie.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: BillR
Date: 10 May 02 - 07:41 PM

In Michigan where I grew up there is both a Hell and a Paradise. There is also a Needmore (to go with the three in Indiana). Another favorite of mine is Show Low, Arizona.

-Bill

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Bill D
Date: 10 May 02 - 08:56 PM

there is a Climax in Colorado, too..they used to have the problem of every college kid that passed by decided to steal the road signs for dorm rooms till they welded them to the posts or something. ..(and down the road is Fairplay...used to be jokes about getting to Climax without going thru Fairplay)

and I remember Dr. Phillips, Florida ....and it is fun to say out loud towns from the 4 corners of the USA, Tallahasee, Walla-Walla, Kennebunk and Cuckamonga...with Oshkosh and Hell to hold down the middle.

(Who remembers the conductor on the Jack Benny program chanting, "Anaheim, Azuza, and Cuc....a-monga"?)....and I had a kids story book when I was young with a railroad called the "Weehawken, Hoboken and Troy"

There is also Monkey's Eyebrow,AZ and a little town in Kansas called "Gas" which I have driven thru many times.

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Paul G.
Date: 10 May 02 - 09:20 PM

I wrote and recorded a song about Crackertown Florida -- actually a minor suburb of Beverly Hills Florida. Then there's another little Florida town named Reddick...no song..yet...

pg

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Ian Darby
Date: 10 May 02 - 10:16 PM

Whetwang in Yorksire and Merrymeet in Cornwall, both for obvious reasons.

I also find the village of Norton Thrubwell strangely attractive....

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: GUEST,Jack..
Date: 10 May 02 - 10:30 PM

How about Flushing, Queens..ugh

as a side note..St. Johns University..Bent Hall..After it was built the school newspaper read" Bent erection complete"...

Vaya con dios

J

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: pastorpest
Date: 11 May 02 - 12:43 AM

Tickle Ass Pass, NF Butter n' Snow, NF

A small community in Saskatchewan called Biggar has a road sign reading "New York is big but this is Biggar"

Subject: RE: Favorite Town names
From: Haruo
Date: 11 May 02 - 12:53 AM

Humptulips, Washington, USA — always makes me think it ought to be right across the river from Fuckdaffodils. Not my fault; the name of the town makes me think that way.

Liland