Unusual Place Names

I used to work groves in a place called Ona FL.

[glatt]

How can I forget:

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
and
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania

[Urbane Guerrilla]

North Zulch, pronounced zoolch, central Texas. We turned off our road to investigate what kind of place rejoiced in such a name. It's a little bitty Texas town mostly hidden in the scrub oaks.

Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. Pronounced exactly as you expect. Never been there. Met a guy in a bar who was from there -- he said it was in beautiful country, but there was no work to be had.

Boring, Maryland.

[Spexxvet]

Ohiopyle is where you can find Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house with the creek/river running through it.

How about Jersey Shore, PA, in north, central PA (nowhere near New Jersey or the ocean)?

In New Jersey, there's Buena, pronouncd Byoona, even though those same people pronounce Lancaster as Lannnn Caster.

[footfootfoot]

These aren't as outright amusing as many already posted, but I get a chuckle out of thinking about the combination of dearth of imagination and practicality in naming the following towns surrounding Westminster, VT:

Westminster West
East Westminster
Had the area grown much we can only imagine the permutations...

[Sundae]

When I lived in Quainton in Bucks, we had a matched set of villages close to us too:

Steeple Claydon
East Claydon
Middle Claydon
Botolph Clayden

Although I assume there was a historical reason for this (possibly landed gentry called Claydon) as opposed to a lack of imagination.

We also had a friend that lived in Marsh Gibbon, and although I don't remember any comment on that at the time, we did like Great Horwood (obviously something a lesser whore wouldn't)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Re Vermont, the Dummerstons......North, South, East, West and Center.

RE Alaska, Red Devil, North Pole and my favorite.....Unalaska.

Moose Factory in Canada is another.

[JayMcGee]

and there really is an

Upper Wallop
Middle Wallop
and last but not least
Lower Wallop

[DanaC]

Upper Wallop
Middle Wallop
and last but not least
Lower Wallop

Isn't that where all the BDSM types hang out?:P

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Re Vermont, the Dummerstons......North, South, East, West and Center.

RE Alaska, Red Devil, North Pole and my favorite.....Unalaska.

Moose Factory in Canada is another.

Used to live just down the 'pike form the dummerstons: Williamsville. aka Bill'sville.

Amazing swimming in those parts.

[JayMcGee]

actually, Dana, I think they mostly commuted from Whippingham, IOW

[BigV]

Pe Ell

Pe Ell was named after French-Canadian Pierre Charles, who lived in the area in the 1850s. Located 23 miles west of Chehalis on Scenic Highway 6 (Ocean Beach Highway). This small town has a strong Polish ancestry and the oldest church in town is the Holy Cross Polish National Church. They also have a vintage military tank right next to the fire station that is often missed by visitors. Logging continues to be the mainstay of Pe Ell's economy.

Forks (The one *I* always think about when y'all talk about Forks, and a heckuva lot shorter commute).

The City of Forks is a small, rural community with big ideas! Nestled between a million acres of national park and the wild Pacific Coast, Forks is the heart of the Olympic Peninsula's West End. It is a place where folks stop for pedestrians and still chat in grocery lines. Forks has traditionally been a timber town, with logging the mainstay of the ecomony. But that has changed a bit, and all sorts of fun things are happening. Technology is taking a major role as a redundant loop of fiberoptic cable around the Peninsula is only months from completion. Our schools are so wired they are ranked among the "most wired" schools in the nation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has chosen Forks High School as a model for "High Tech High". We now have an incubator building for tech businesses. We also have a new industrial park, a huge airport, and a community aquatic center that will be complete this spring (2005).

Puyallup Most famous (to me at least) for their fair. They musta got in on the internet thingee early--http://www.thefair.com/ "thefair"? Around here it is The Fair.

Nooksack 'nuff said.

Twisp Whimsical sounding, isn't it?

Located at the confluence of the Twisp and Methow rivers, the town of Twisp is a year-around paradise that offers abundant sunshine, generous snowfall and plenty of wildlife including bald eagles, white-tailed and mule deer, cougars, bears, even occasional elk and moose.

If outdoor recreation is your passion, Twisp is definitely the place to be with four seasons of fun that include mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, skiing, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and much more.

Founded in 1897, Twisp is the largest town in the Methow Valley with an eclectic mix of approximately 1,000 residents that includes artists, musicians, writers, ranchers, farmers, entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts, among others.

Vader, WA. No link, you can look it up. Named after some guy.

Walla Walla Euphonious, especially when spoken by Roger Rabbit.

[wolf]

Wierd place names was something that I loved as a geography major in college. I remember places like Smackover (corruption of Chemin Covert), Nigger Ben Meadow, and of course, some of the more bizarre Pennsylvania town names like Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, and Blue Ball.

King of Prussia, incidentally, is named after a what, rather than a who. Because I knew this I won some cool stuff from a local radio DJ ... he used to make fun of the name and would always ask, "Who is the King of Prussia anyway." I called with the explanation that it was named after the Inn that at the time was still standing at the intersection of 202 and Gulph Road (it has since been moved as part of a rescue the historic inn project). He told me I was full of crap and hung up on me. Later that morning, on my way to work, I was quite surprised to hear my call played on the radio! Nearly put my car in the ditch. He made some additional jokes at my expense and played some music. Anyway, shortly after playing my call, he received a call from a very nice lady at the historical society who took him to task for the way he treated me ... a friend of mine told me about this call (we had a no radios rule at work) and I called him back the next morning, told him he owed me, and he apologized, agreed, and sent me a gift pack with all kinds of cool station merchandise.

[Spexxvet]

Wolf the geography major? Wow! Does that help you in your current occupation?
Wolf: "send the men in white coats to pick up Mrs. Smith. She's in Lower Providence, not to be confused with Upper Providence or Nether Providence. That would be Lattitude yadayada, longitude yadayada. Named by Thomas Leper in 1635, it defined the portion of land deeded to Leper by Prince Schlomo, of the Finnish Schlomos - a deed voided by Wiliam Penn....."

[breakingnews]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Houston (pronounced house-ton.)

Actually I heard recently that it is originally house-ton, and that Houston (hue-ston) was the mutilation. Perhaps it became popular because of Sam Houston or somethin like that?