I love Google Maps, especially street view. From the comfort of my own living room, I can explore the metros of Tokyo, the streets of London, the sands of Cairo, or the goat farms of Kyrgyzstan. The other day, I was exploring around my home state, West Virginia, for shits and giggles because I know how fun town names around here can be. I already know about Nitro and Hurricane (pronounced hurr-ick-un). However, the southern part of the state, which I am only vaguely familiar with due to visiting my grandparents there, has some of the weirdest town names. Here are a few:
-Lawn
-Big Stick
-Mt. Gay-Shamrock
-Pluto
-Lego
-Mead
-Snowflake
-Monitor
-Droop Mountain
-Beard
-War
-Rock
-Duck
-Excelsior
There are also a huge amount of town names in the southern part of the state that are also names of people. Oscar, Rupert, Gertrude, Ryan, Myra, Julian, Ulysses, Lenore, and more are all West Virginian towns.
I have a theory that for a lot of these towns, the settlers named it after the first thing they saw. For example, after hiking over the mountains with half of their caravan dying of dysentary, they saw a duck. Duck was the name of the town. Another group of settlers had their scout leader open his eyes for the first time after almost dying of dysentary, his bearded medic hovering over him. Beard was the title of the village.
That, or the first West Virginians just wanted to fuck with everyone because they knew in the future everyone would believe them to be a bunch of moonshine-swilling toothless hicks.
west virgina sucks...no offense. just sayin.
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So you insult my home state then want me to follow your blog? Lawl.
ReplyDeleteWell spoke Brittany, like a "true West Virginian!" I'm a native to Pa, and there is no lack of unique town, and road names there as well. Lived all over, and NOWHERE compares to WV. I used to think along the same lines as you, as to how these names came about. A lot of towns and little unincorperateds were named after the prevalent families that inhabited those areas. I.e. Nestorville was named after the Nestor clan, Moatsville after the Moats gang, ect. As for the rest of the names, it comes down to one word......Simple. Not in the condescending way in which ignorant people refer to "us." Simple in the way in which West Virginian's are. Everything is named appropriately! In Wv there just isn't much use for 10 cent words, or long explanations. A saying I'm not all too fond of applies in this state.....It is, what it is. This state is majestic, our forests are enchanted, and we have an enormous amount of freedom that folks who haven't lived elsewhere can't fully appreciate. You practically have to raft down river, to catch a ride on a mule to the top of a mountain, where a Pterradactile will fly you the rest of the way to my little slice of heaven! If you've made it that far, and know the secret call, then you'll find yours truly, tending most likely the most beautiful garden of Japanese tomato plants you could lay your eyes upon. Those who hate the state, can stay outta it, & my garden. PEACE, stay weird, and please keep up your ramblings!
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