Wacky Town Names
May 31, 2016 3:26 PM   Subscribe

America's a big country. From the easternmost reaches of Maine to the western Alaska islands in the Bering Sea, these United States include towns with every imaginable name. We've collected some of the more surprising examples. Because it's the last day of May and we wanna keep MeFi weird. Add your own examples, let's go wild!
posted by Bella Donna (141 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm suddenly reminded of the airline schedule in Leisure Suit Larry 5, which was full of real locations with double entendre names, like Intercourse, PA.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:34 PM on May 31, 2016


Whenever my mom would fly to Brazil to see her family, we'd always have some quip like "Why don't you just drive there?"
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:37 PM on May 31, 2016


Coming from Cockermouth as I do, I've got to say America, you need to try harder...
posted by Helga-woo at 3:38 PM on May 31, 2016 [12 favorites]


*checks real estate in Cheesequake, New Jersey*
posted by Sys Rq at 3:39 PM on May 31, 2016


Accident.
posted by zennie at 3:42 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


I was going to mention the Homeric names of towns in upstate NY (Ithaca, Homer, Ovid, Ulysses, ...) but that led me to a Wikipedia page called List of towns in New York, and that's a rabbit hole that's hard to climb out of.

Just on the C's, there's Cairo, Cato, Champion, Chautauqua, Chili, Cicero, Cincinnatus, two Clintons, Conquest, Conesville, Concord, Covert, and Cuba. That's just the highlights. And there were Alabama, Babylon, Bombay, Brutus, and Delhi as I scrolled past.
posted by RedOrGreen at 3:42 PM on May 31, 2016 [10 favorites]


I am still fond of Two Dot, MT - supposedly so named because it had two saloons on either end of the main street.

The town sign has no text - just a billboard with two large dots.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:44 PM on May 31, 2016 [7 favorites]


Missing Humptulips, WA -- list validity in serious doubt.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:46 PM on May 31, 2016 [9 favorites]


For crying out loud, these people couldn't even be bothered to include Truth or Consequences, NM, the town that renamed itself after a quiz show.

Are they even trying?
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:49 PM on May 31, 2016 [18 favorites]


They included Bugscuffle, but left off Bugtussle. The nerve.
posted by yhbc at 3:49 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


I actually kind of dig the made-up names that people use as placeholder names when they are referring to "any generic small town". My father was fond of using "West Left Overshoe" in that context, and I've also heard "West Bumfuck". And for small towns in the Bible belt I've heard people use the term "East Jesus".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:54 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


We have family who live in Rifle, Colorado. Next door are Silt and Parachute.

Still my favorite town name: Defiance, Missouri.
posted by offalark at 3:55 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


In a slightly different but related vein, I grew up in rural Indiana. Within five miles of where I grew up were little towns of 200-1000 people named Mecca, Tangier, and Montezuma. It's my belief that someone influential in the area around 1824 had a world atlas and some big dreams.
posted by geegollygosh at 3:57 PM on May 31, 2016 [7 favorites]


Let me introduce you to Come By Chance. The accidental climax of many Canadian maritime vacations.
posted by srboisvert at 3:59 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


Copperopolis, Calif.
posted by Sophie1 at 4:05 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


I came here to mention Humptulips, but someone beat me to it, so I'll have to settle for some other WA gems like Nooksack, Vader, Startup, and Tokeland.
posted by karayel at 4:13 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh come on, we're almost an hour in, and still no mention of Coxsackie yet? Metafilter, I am disappoint.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 4:16 PM on May 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


Oh and of course there's also George, Washington.

(I spent a lot of happy childhood hours poring over the WA State Road Atlas on long car trips.)
posted by karayel at 4:18 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


No Intercourse?

I guess my next stop is Blue Ball.
posted by freakazoid at 4:20 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Speaking of Intercourse: the best silly dig T-shirt I've ever seen on an archaeologist has got to be my (native Pennsylvanian) friend's--"I [heart] Intercourse", with the "PA" in very small print.
posted by karayel at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2016


Sugar Tit, SC.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:25 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


(All the best people live on Nipple Ave.)
posted by octobersurprise at 4:26 PM on May 31, 2016


Want to go to Mexico? It's a town in Upstate New York!
posted by SyraCarol at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


No it's not! It's in Maine, south of Carthage, and west of Peru!
posted by China Grover at 4:37 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Nutbush, Tennessee.
posted by Floydd at 4:40 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


I guess Illinois has no interesting town names :/ To be honest, I can't think of any either.

However, how we pronounce our town names is sometimes surprising. Des Plaines, Cairo, Paulina. But still not as messed up as MA.
posted by sbutler at 4:41 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


They got Paradise, MI but passed up the opportunity to also list Hell, MI - both extremes lie in one U.S. state!

Intercourse, PA

This is reaching back, but in the credits for one of the old Eddie Murphy stand up videos, either Raw or Delirious, they were driving down the highway between Chicago and Detroit and pulled over to laugh at the exit sign for Climax. Checked; it's real.

Also, not exactly a town name, but I-75 west of Detroit has an exit 69 to Big Beaver Road. And that exhausts my adolescent-humor-level knowledge of Michigan place names.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 4:42 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


I recently found out in passing about Elephant, PA.

I made a quiz night question at one point that was just "which of these filthy-sounding place names are real?" Big Bone Lick, KY and Dildo, Newfoundland were among the real ones. Dixon Buttes, MT was my favorite of the fake ones I made up.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:42 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


And of course, the highlight of any drive across Ohio on I-80 is going under the overpass labeled "Fangboner Rd"
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:43 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

Twist: not named after the Jersey Shore.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 4:46 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


Want to go to Mexico? It's a town in Upstate New York!

New York is a small village near Boston.

posted by Emma May Smith at 4:49 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Castle Danger, MN
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:50 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


I always had a soft spot for Blandford, Massachusetts.

And Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey.

And my old favorite: Pine Bush, New York.
posted by gyusan at 4:51 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Humptulips has a certain notoriety here in Washington state, and on older maps there's a Sappho up on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca (as I recall).
posted by jamjam at 4:52 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


No Entering Marion? I'm disappointed.
posted by cuscutis at 4:52 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Tired of the USA? C'mon over to BASTARD!

Or if you're feeling a bit racier, you can head to DILDO.
posted by crazylegs at 4:53 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Bucksnort, TN
posted by BobtheThief at 4:54 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Dinkytown isn't a town, really, it's a neighborhood. If neighborhoods count, I've always been fond of Shenk's Corners.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:55 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


pulled over to laugh at the exit sign for Climax. Checked; it's real.

Going east to west on I-94, you drive by I-69, I-194 (known locally as "The Penetrator". No joke.) and then Climax at exit 92.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:57 PM on May 31, 2016


Mounds, OK.

Heh.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:03 PM on May 31, 2016


Driving to Climax.
posted by little onion at 5:05 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Micanopy, FL

Only because my grandfather decided that he would pronounce it as "my can-o-pee" so that every time he drove through it he could say, out loud, by himself, "That's not YOUR can-o-pee, that's MY can-o-pee."

All this because he knew that his grandchildren would giggle when he told them the story.
posted by VTX at 5:06 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


Speaking of Coxsackie NY, there's a hamlet in that town by the name of Climax.
posted by mrgoat at 5:09 PM on May 31, 2016


Wyoming, Rhode Island.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:15 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


My sisters and I were excited to find a spot marked Dirty Sock on a map of California, way the hell out in the middle of nowhere somewhere between LA and Death Valley. So we attempted a pilgrimage. We made up all sorts of romantic backstory about a miner who pined so badly for his girl that he refused to wash his socks, or suchlike.

After driving all around the area of Owens Lake asking people where the town of Dirty Sock was, and getting many puzzled expressions in return, we finally got a tip that sent us into the middle of flat nothing -- to find that it was actually Dirty Socks Spring, an ugly hole in the ground named for its stench.

Still disappointed. But at least now we know.
posted by gusandrews at 5:15 PM on May 31, 2016 [11 favorites]


Brick, NJ, is not far from Wall, NJ.

Near Lake George in upstate New York is a town called Cleverton. I desperately wish I could tell you it's north of Stupidville, but I made up Stupidville.

They got Sandwich, MA, but missed nearby Mashpee.
posted by scratch at 5:20 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


California PA.

But my favorite names in Pennsylvania. Colver and Revloc.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:31 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Came for Peculiar, MO and Toad Suck, AR and was not disappointed.

Fun fact: not long after Peculiar became a town (it had a different name that I can't remember), they asked the Postmaster General what they needed to do to get a post office. The PG said they needed to meet a minimum population requirement, which they didn't. Failing that, the PG said, sometimes exceptions were made for towns with sufficiently peculiar names.

So they went straight for on-the-nose, renamed the town Peculiar, and got a post office.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:32 PM on May 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


Meh, you still don't have a Dildo, America.

But no surprise that you don't have a Mosquito Grizzly Bears Head Lean Man or Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
posted by GuyZero at 5:37 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Also the clear product of a distinct society: Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, QC. (Also bears the distinction of being the only town in the world with two exclamation points in its name.)
posted by GuyZero at 5:39 PM on May 31, 2016 [7 favorites]


Effingham, NH
posted by schoolgirl report at 5:49 PM on May 31, 2016


Washington State has some of the best small towns along Highway 2 through the Cascades. I've always loved the names - you have Sultan, Startup, Index, Goldbar, and Cashmere, to name a few.
posted by drinkyclown at 5:50 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Okay, OK? Okay, OK!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:54 PM on May 31, 2016


Not only do we have a Dildo in Newfoundland, we also have some Grosses Coques in Nova Scotia
posted by saturday_morning at 5:55 PM on May 31, 2016


Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!

> mic drop <
posted by raider at 5:55 PM on May 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


Also a Lower Sackville, which is just about as pleasant as it sounds
posted by saturday_morning at 5:56 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


And of course Washington has the town no one can pronounce, Sequim (hint: one syllable).
posted by maxwelton at 5:57 PM on May 31, 2016


Lower Sackville

It does sound like everything is tainted.
posted by maxwelton at 5:58 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


"The Interstate exit says, “Secret Town,”
and I think it’s not if it has a sign.
It’s like saying you’re asleep or sexy or classy;
the announcement negates the statement.
But maybe it’s not a description
of the town’s location, but its function.
Perhaps it manufactures secrets.
..."
posted by morganw at 5:58 PM on May 31, 2016


I guess my next stop is Blue Ball.

Meanwhile, in Germany and Austria, you can go from Kissing, through to Petting, before crossing the border to Fucking and ultimately ending up at Wedding (in the north of Berlin).
posted by acb at 6:01 PM on May 31, 2016 [5 favorites]


Eighty Four, PA.

I also liked the Metroform destination on I-95 in Delaware.
posted by neilbert at 6:02 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Alaska has Chicken, Mayo, King Salmon, Grayling, and Kake. Maybe Kake doesn't count but it sounds like it does.
posted by Foam Pants at 6:02 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Did anyone mention Pahrump yet?
posted by gusandrews at 6:05 PM on May 31, 2016


When I visit my parents, I drive through Home and past Desire, Paradise and Panic PA.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:05 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


When we moved to NC in the mid-80s, my dad was fond of telling people back home about how he now lived between Climax, High Point and Horneytown.
posted by bologna on wry at 6:12 PM on May 31, 2016


Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!

Damn you Raider for beating me to it!
>picks up mic and slinks back to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump via Moosejaw<
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:12 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Fishhook is in Illinois.
Fishhook is where Robert Earl Hughes, once billed the world's largest man by the Guinness Book of World Records, grew up.
posted by tronec at 6:16 PM on May 31, 2016


Effingham, NH, has a sister city, Effingham, IL. It's the inspiration for the Ben Folds song, though Ben got the name wrong. The mayor of Effingham seems like a pretty affable guy. He isn't sore about the mistake, or about the risque nature of the song itself. He has kindly offered to buy Ben lunch the next time he comes by, and is even willing to fulfill Mr. Folds's lyrical plea to "please bury me in Effington."
posted by BrashTech at 6:27 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


There's definitely no "Big Rock Candy Mountain, VT", (although there appears to be a company with that name in-state, fwiw) so the rest of this list gets at least some side-eye.

At least, there's none I've ever come across in my years of 251 Club membership.
posted by Earthtopus at 6:28 PM on May 31, 2016


And my old favorite: Pine Bush, New York.

Ah, Pine Bush, the redneck and UFO capital of the Hudson Valley.

I'm pretty sure those two things are linked.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:40 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ah, and then there's the - kill towns in the lower parts of NY, like Peekskill and Fishkill. The names are part of the Dutch heritage of the region, being derived from the Dutch word for stream.

When I was growing up in the area, PETA petitioned to have Fishkill renamed to Fishsaved. The area residents had a laugh at that.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:44 PM on May 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


I sure hope someone mentions Dildo, Newfoundland again.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:47 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


New Mexico is semi-famous for T or C, as we call it for short, and we also have a Cuba and Madrid, though they're pronounced Koo-ba and May-drid. We also have Pie Town, my personal favorite. It's a bit out of the way, but there is a pie festival in September.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:54 PM on May 31, 2016


I gave you people hours, and no one yet mentioned Embarrass, Minnesota?

Or upstate in Savage, MN, where the Red Owl grocery store was, yes, the "Savage Red Owl"?

DAMMIT do I have to do everything here myself now?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:56 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Also a Lower Sackville, which is just about as pleasant as it sounds

This fact is a true fact!

(Just kidding. It's actually a perfectly fine, ordinary, boring suburb -- I worked at the Sobeys there as a teenager, commuting from Bedford -- but it's at the point outside Halifax where the Trailer Park Boys accent really starts to kick in, and that, combined with the relative affluence of nearby Bedford, Fall River, and Hammonds Plains, makes it a pretty easy target for derision. This was especially true in my day, when all us kids from those three other towns went to just the one high school, whose prime rival was Sackville High. I do remember Sackville had a strip club, a hydroponic supply store, and a lot of cheque cashing places and the like -- not exactly the sort of things that scream class -- but so would Bedford/Fall River/Hammonds Plains if there were anything at all in any of those places.)

(Besides, just a couple minutes up the road: Beaver Bank.)
posted by Sys Rq at 6:59 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Slap*Happy: Wyoming, Rhode Island.

There's also a town named Wyoming in Minnesota, where there's way more space to fit it in than in Little Rhodey.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:59 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Boring, Oregon's sister city is Dull, Scotland. I love the world sometimes.
posted by munchingzombie at 7:03 PM on May 31, 2016 [9 favorites]


Another place confused as to its location: West New York, NJ.
posted by fings at 7:06 PM on May 31, 2016


Of course the State of Wyoming itself was most likely named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:10 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


We have Nether Wallop in the UK. Not sure I shouldn't be cross-posting that to the groin injury thread.
posted by comealongpole at 7:15 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


Illinois takes perfectly normal names, then butchers the pronunciation, e.g.,

San Jose (Jose rhymes with Rose)
Cairo (Karo, like the syrup)
Versailles (pronounced more or less as it looks)
posted by she's not there at 7:16 PM on May 31, 2016


I'm partial to Athol, MA, because I'm still only 12.

If you ever find yourself heading to Corning, NY (for the Corning Museum of Glass, of course), make sure to pass through Horseheads, just to say you did.
posted by adamg at 7:25 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


Oh, and of course, Dildo, Newfoundland is right near Heart's Desire and Conception Bay. Lots of lonely sailors, apparently. If you head over to Ontario, you can visit scenic Crotch Lake.

Pennsylvania is also home to Bird-in-Hand, "named for a picture on old hotel's swinging sign" according to the oddly phrased sign.

England, on the other hand, is home to both Peniston (pronounced "pennis-tin") and Shitterton (whose name is derived from the meaning "farmstead on the stream used as an open sewer").
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:27 PM on May 31, 2016


Is there an oil firm in Peniston?
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:28 PM on May 31, 2016


I'm suddenly reminded of the airline schedule in Leisure Suit Larry 5, which was full of real locations with double entendre names, like Intercourse, PA.

I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned that Blue Ball, PA is literally the town right next door Intercourse, PA. Once, I went with my girlfriend for the weekend in Lancaster County, where we programmed the GPS to say, "Now leaving Blue Ball. Continue 1 mile to Intercourse." I'm proud to say I married that gal.
posted by jonp72 at 7:30 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


California PA.

The real-life California University of Pennsylvania has had its profile raised recently by being the fictional alma mater of Xmas Flaxon Waxon-Jaxon in Key and Peele's first East-West football sketch, but there's also a Indiana University of Pennsylvania too. And we have a Wyoming, Pennsylvania too. Pennsylvania contains multitudes.
posted by jonp72 at 7:32 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm sad that California is underrepresented in silly town names and have partially blamed the tendency to use Spanish place names... some are weird: El Segundo is The Second (that's #2, not the measure of time), El Cajon is The Drawer (and NOT related to cojones... El Cojon would've been a fun place), Arroyo Grande is The Large Stream (not quite a river, but aspiring to be one), Cerritos is Small Hills, Atascadero is alternately "swamp or mire" and "stumbling block or dead end" (I've been there, it's both), Avenal is Field of Oats, Carpinteria is Carpentry (with some suspicion of a fanatical Christian origin), Alameda is a Poplar Grove, Encino is Oak Tree (and is adjacent to Sherman Oaks), Aliso Viejo is Old Alder/Birch and Calabasas is the misspelled calabazas or Pumpkins.

Arcata isn't even Spanish, it's Italian for Arched or Vaulted.

And so many of the english-language towns are named for people, requiring some effort to make them anything but 'meh'. I am so grateful that Gary Owens worked so hard to make "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" a thing.

And I'm proud to live in San Luis Obispo, whose boring name ("St. Louis the Bishop") has become fun(ny) by abbreviation ... call us SLO-Town.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:33 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Rough and Ready, CA
posted by Lyme Drop at 7:37 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


"I don't care,
you can name it Hell
for all I care."
posted by clavdivs at 7:38 PM on May 31, 2016


We drove through Tightwad, MO yesterday.
posted by scruss at 7:52 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Texas has Paris, China, Athens, Dublin, Jamaica Beach, Naples, Palestine, San Juan, Scotland, and Turkey. You can travel the world without leaving the state!

If you prefer to stay in the US, Texas has you covered with Beverly Hills, Reno, Pittsburg, Portland, Atlanta, and Memphis, and many more!
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:52 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


These aren't weird by the standards of the previous comments, but personally, I've always liked that Montana contains towns named both Kevin and Belt. That's my kind of place.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:56 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Surely Elvis, Peter Lorre, Bruce Lee, Kurt Cobain, etc. are all hiding out in Turkey Scratch, AR.
posted by juiceCake at 7:56 PM on May 31, 2016


I've been to Belt.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:58 PM on May 31, 2016


On the contrary, California has plenty of good ones. I'm partial to:

Shafter
Hellhole Palms
& the highlight of any road trip, Zzyzx
posted by Tiny Bungalow at 8:00 PM on May 31, 2016


Want to go to Mexico? It's a town in Upstate New York!

That's my hometown! It's just south of Texas, NY in case you are looking for it on a map.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:00 PM on May 31, 2016


No, wait, Mexico is in Maine. So are a lot of other countries.
posted by adamg at 8:13 PM on May 31, 2016


They didn't even mention western NC and yet within a 40 minute drive from Asheville we've got Bat Cave, Mars Hill, Sandy Mush and my personal favorite, Sodom Laurel.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:24 PM on May 31, 2016


Cut & Shoot, TX
posted by Seeba at 8:31 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yo mama is from Coxsackie.

No, wait, my mama is. Never mind.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:38 PM on May 31, 2016


Mexican Hat, Utah. This is related to Chicken, Alaska, where the original dwellers wanted to name the town after the state bird, the Ptarmigan, but no one knew how to spell it, hence Chicken. There is also Hurricane, Utah, (pronounced Hur-kin.)
posted by Oyéah at 8:45 PM on May 31, 2016


Oh yes, and Chino, California, which means cantaloupe. There is also Coalinga, California, which started out as coaling station A.
posted by Oyéah at 8:47 PM on May 31, 2016


There is also a Marathon, TX. I wondered if it might be related to Marathon Oil somehow, but apparently not. Looking at Google maps, it doesn't seem to be oil country at all.
posted by Bruce H. at 8:54 PM on May 31, 2016


Don't forget Lizard Lick!
posted by verytepid at 9:07 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


In northwestern Victoria, Australia, Woosang, Dooboobetic and Tittybong are a short drive away from each other.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 9:18 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Big Bone Lick State Park is located at Big Bone in Boone County, Kentucky. It is located on Beaver Road and between the communities of Beaverlick and Rabbit Hash.

You can't make this stuff up, folks.
posted by pjern at 9:25 PM on May 31, 2016


Came for Toad Suck, was not disappointed. They did, however, miss Beaver. Just beaver. Arkansas has a lot of fun place names. I like the mundane banality of Mansfield, so named because the railroad put a stop in the middle of a man's field.

Bald Knob is pretty good if you're 12 and are looking for a fresh euphemism for male genitalia.
posted by wierdo at 9:46 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was sure there was a Mianus, New Jersey, but I find out that I was wrong. It's the Mianus River, which is not at all humorous.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:50 PM on May 31, 2016


Damn, someone beat me to Cut and Shoot, which is near me. (And lives up to it's name.) My favorite though, is the town of Uncertain, TX, where I had a really good cajun meal and drove past my favorite church EVER: "The Church of Uncertain".
posted by threeturtles at 10:34 PM on May 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Alaska has Chicken, Mayo, King Salmon, Grayling, and Kake. Maybe Kake doesn't count but it sounds like it does.
So we're hungry up here.

Actually, my favorite newspaper headline that I've encountered in real life (as opposed to collections of wacky newspaper headlines) was from a period of time a few years ago when runaway wildfires were forcing the evacuation of small communities in interior Alaska. I'm sure it was a terribly traumatic for the people involved, but the headline "Interior Residents Flee Chicken" had to have made some Anchorage editor's day.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:46 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


Also.. For a while I was getting political spam e-mails from a Tennessee congressman who had me mixed up with one of his constituents. According to his literature he was from Frog Jump, Tennessee.

I thought the first several were some kind of weird hoax, but if you were trying to invent a character you would not make up a congressman from Frog Jump, Tennessee -- it would be laying it on too thick.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:50 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


And what of Belchertown, MA?
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:26 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm partial to Yolo County, CA.
posted by nikoniko at 11:32 PM on May 31, 2016


Came for Peculiar, MO

Cool, I was born there!
posted by readyfreddy at 11:48 PM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Illinois takes perfectly normal names,

Names like Normal?
posted by readyfreddy at 11:50 PM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


I can't read the whole thread at work (too much potential for childish giggling) but I very nearly grew up in Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire and now live not-too-far-away from Tiddleywink, Wiltshire.
posted by A Robot Ninja at 1:26 AM on June 1, 2016


I'm sad that California is underrepresented in silly town names and have partially blamed the tendency to use Spanish place names... some are weird

Those are normal names. For weird names you have Cenicero, Logroño ("Ashtray"), Parderrubias, Pontevedra ("A Pair of Blondes"), Matagorda, Almería ("Kill the fat woman"), Malcocinado, Badajoz ("Badly cooked"), Despeñaperros ("Dog-plunge cliff"), Alcantarilla, Murcia ("Sewer pipe") or Cabra del Santo Cristo, Jaén ("Holy Christ's Goat").

And there's also Guarromán, which would translate as the superhero name "Filthyswine-man".
posted by sukeban at 3:25 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


No French Lick, IN? Fail.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:07 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


The area in and around Puget Sound in WA has some great place names (more for geographical features than towns). On the sunny side of things, you have Snug Harbor; but then, you also have Deception Pass and Useless Bay. For the existentially bleak, there's always Point No Point on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Elsewhere in Washington, there's Mount Horrible and Mount Triumph.

The next murder mystery show set in the Pacific Northwest had better be called Deception Pass.
posted by duffell at 4:29 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Here's a fun game you can play with these town names. Remember the Bill Clinton documentary-style campaign ad, "The Man From Hope?" Imagine a future president hailing from one of these towns.

THE WOMAN FROM DEFIANCE
THE MAN FROM BORING
THE MAN FROM SUGAR TIT
THE WOMAN FROM ACCIDENT
posted by duffell at 4:36 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Man from Location
posted by duffell at 4:49 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


Bald Knob is pretty good if you're 12 and are looking for a fresh euphemism for male genitalia.

My favorite Bald Knob-related story was quite a few years back when we had a rash of bad storms and tornados in AR. We turned on the local NBC affiliate to keep the weather report on. A tornado watch cropped up near Bald Knob, and the meteorologist couldn't stop saying the town's name.

Bald Knob, there could be some rotation headed your way. Bald Knob, you may want to get back in and take cover. Bald Knob, stay away from the windows. It's getting pretty wet out there, Bald Knob.

I'm about 75% sure that whoever was in the production booth kept egging him on through his earpiece, because he just kept saying it with surreal frequency, at one point beginning a sentence by saying "Bald Knob, Bald Knob..."
posted by middleclasstool at 5:18 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


In college, my roommate and I decided to go find a reportedly famous strip club across the river in Davenport. Unfortunately, neither of us really understood the concept of addresses in unincorporated areas beyond city limits, and just kept driving, way, way past the club. We realized about ten minutes into our drive that we had missed our destination, but we kept driving. About forty five minutes or so later, we saw a sign for the best named town ever

Lost Nation, Iowa.

We pulled off the road into the town, and drove around the five or six block grid of the town, and stopped at the bar. We went in, and since neither of us really drank much at that time, ordered some silly cocktails, drank them, and left, all without really talking to anyone, including each other. We got into his truck and drove off, and in the rear view mirror, we could see that nearly everyone in the bar had come out to check out the license plate and see where we came from.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:40 AM on June 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


Ctrl + f braintree
Phrase not found

I'm disappointed in you, MetaFilter.

(It's the name of a town, and the southern terminus of one of the major subway lines, so you hear it a thousand times, and you stop noticing how weird it is after the third or fourth one. But it's still weird. Braintreee. Brain. Tree.)
posted by Mayor West at 5:42 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Brown Material Road, near Lost Hills in California was originally named Shit Road.
posted by path at 6:01 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Tennessee also has Difficult, Defeated, and Nameless.
posted by pianoblack at 6:16 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Mr. Rabbit and I used to spend our anniversary at Cape Disappointment every year when we lived in the Pacific Northwest.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:33 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


The UK is a goldmine for entertaining place names. I mean, Wetwang, Pratt's Bottom and Shitterton? GOLDMINE.

Also, this is probably as good a place as any to droplay this: It's practically against the law to use apostrophes in US place names. (that is, possessive apostrophes, with only five exceptions: Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Ike's Point, N.J.; John E's Pond, R.I.; Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, Ariz.; and Clark's Mountain, Ore.)
posted by triggerfinger at 7:31 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm sad that California is underrepresented in silly town names

We do have Azusa. Everything from A to Z in the USA. Really.

Also, Yreka - according to Mark Twain: Harte had arrived in California in the 1850s, 23 or 24 years old, and had wandered up into the surface diggings of the camp at Yreka, a place which had acquired its mysterious name — when in its first days it much needed a name — through an accident. There was a bakeshop with a canvas sign which had not yet been put up but had been painted and stretched to dry in such a way that the word BAKERY, all but the B, showed through and was reversed. A stranger read it wrong end first, YREKA, and supposed that that was the name of the camp. The campers were satisfied with it and adopted it.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:33 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


California, my favorite is Manteca or "lard."

In Russia, out in the boonies, is the village called Scrotum (in translation.) There are also Little Sodom and Big Sodom, which was renamed Greater Sodom, maybe out of pride.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:22 AM on June 1, 2016


The optimistically-named Waterproof, Louisiana is right on the Missisippi, and has apparently been moved three times to prevent flooding.
posted by egypturnash at 9:12 AM on June 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


We do have Azusa. Everything from A to Z in the USA. Really.

Wouldn't it be a thousand times better if it were Azusa, AZ, USA?
posted by Sys Rq at 9:17 AM on June 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


There is also a California, MD, located in an area almost no one I know would ever visit.
posted by numaner at 9:32 AM on June 1, 2016


Iowa has a long history of naming towns after famous places and then mispronouncing them. Loves ya Madrid, IA.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:40 AM on June 1, 2016


Good to see that my home state is represented on the list with Toad Suck. But let's also not forget Bald Knob and Possum Grape, reminding everyone that Arkansas is king of states fond of place names that sound like uncomfortable backwoods euphemisms.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:33 PM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


"I came home early and I caught him giving her the Possum Grape."
posted by Foam Pants at 10:52 AM on June 2, 2016


Awesome Ape

Think about it, Arkansas.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:54 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


"New City"
posted by mikelieman at 11:21 AM on June 2, 2016


Truth or Consequences, NM, named for a game show.

Driving through far northwest Massachusetts you might be surprised by Florida.
posted by apricot at 11:31 AM on June 3, 2016


I live in Little Rock. Today I was looking up good driving routes because we will be weekending in the state's lone LGBT paradise, Eureka Springs. A name which seems hilariously appropriate in context, now that I've written that sentence.

Anyway, while checking the map, I just now discovered that up near there is a Little Flock, AR. I am charmed that some little burg wanted to make the Fig Newman of town names.
posted by middleclasstool at 11:43 AM on June 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Somehow I'm reminded of Ursula, where my maternal grandfather was born. Amusing not for its name, but because it is pronounced "Ur-SUE-la," which is unlike its pronunciation when used as a first name. Partly I wanted to post this because there will now be a record of that fact even though almost everyone who ever knew the place is or will soon be dead. Since the railroad got pulled up, it has pretty much disappeared as so many tiny rural communities that sprouted up around railroad stops have.

A lot of places only ever existed because steam locomotives had to stop for water so often.

Names I genuinely wonder how they came to be: War Eagle and Beav-o-Rama. Most I can understand as some existing geographic or cultural feature or using the name of some prominent person, denizen or otherwise. Sometimes they are aspirational, though. Springdale, AR was originally named Shiloh. It was pretty nice given its flatness and relatively fertile soil compared to the rocky hills and valleys in the rest of the region, but it still seems a bit much.
posted by wierdo at 10:16 AM on June 7, 2016


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