Posted on 11/28/2011 8:32:08 AM PST by JoeProBono
SAN ANTONIO, - Texas is host to hundreds of towns with strange names, including one dubbed Nameless, a folklorist says.
The town of Nameless got its handle after several other names for the proposed town were rejected by the U.S. postmaster in 1880, the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday.
Finally, after the sixth rejection, a resident sent a note to the postmaster saying, "Let the post office be nameless and be damned!" And thus the town of Nameless was born.
Other towns adopted names for specific reasons, said Rhett Rushing, a folklorist at the Institute of Texan Culture.
Some residents named their towns after large cities as a way of raising attention, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Paris and Carthage.
Others were named after the town's roots, like Bovina, where cattle were shipped to market, and Muleshoe, which grew around a blacksmith's shop.
Happy, Joy, Utopia, Paradise, Eden, Placid, Prosper and Loyal Valley were all named with good feelings.
There are dozens of towns named after men and women, Native American tribes, food and actions, while some are just bizarre. Looneyville, Fluvanna, Loco, Noodle, Cut And Shoot, Gun Barrel City and Lazbuddie can all be found on the state's map.
I’ve been to Toad Suck. They have a park there. In fact that is all I saw there.
There is a “Dime Box, TX” and a “Old Dime Box, TX”, both near Austin, TX. Ever heard of Mexia, TX? It’s pronounced, “Ma Hair”. It’s near “Waco”. San Antonio is in “Bexar” County, pronounced “Bear”.
Dunmovin, Calif
More strange Texas town names:
Muleshoe
Dime Box
Ding Dong
Skeeterville
Earth
Venus
Noodle
Oatmeal
Fairy
Egypt
Paris
Wink
Elmo
Kermit
Cut n Shoot
Gun Barrel
Santa Ana - similar to Nameless, the town sent in their application to name the town after the Indian Chief Santana but the PO thought it was misspelled so named them after the Mexican President Santa Ana.
On my last trip to Arkansas there were some pretty strange names there, too. How would you like to come from Toad Suck, Gassville, or Greasy Corner? I kid you not.
What??? Nobody mentioned China or Nome!!
The town named for my family fizzled out in the 1910’s. I love my old Texas maps from the 1860’s to 1910’s on which I’m still a featured town.
No, but it was up for a vote. The name of the town is not racist in the generally assumed sense, though. It was the only ‘white’ settlement outside the Fort (Fort Worth) as opposed to all the Indian settlements in that area at the time.
White City, Florida settled by the Danes, named their city that, because it was”ALL WHITE”.
Todays PC books say< wrongly” because it was the first with electric lights on city roads. All bulls—t!
I own a book written in 1933, by workers for WPA, Federal Government; called “A Guide to Florida. It covers all the 1933 and before as a travelogue!
1933 we were a racist country.
Yeehaw Junction, Florida, I can vouch, was a cross roads in 1938-1940 and later, as i rode through in those years and many times since WW2!
In 1948 my family and I noticed a sign on a hotel, only building there, it said Heartbreak Hotel. It was a two story wooden structure of no note, until a young man named Elvis sang a song with the same name.
A story goes, not sure it’s true, the old man that owned it had collected a lot of old cars and his kin made money when selling them off.
Andytown was on US 27 at a point which is now the East end of Alligator Alley. It was a truck stop/gas station. It was obliterated in 70s(?) when AA was built.
Pennsuco was south on US27 by approx. 12 miles. It is now a Toll interchange for Fla. Turnpike and US27. Florida, Ex. Gov. Bob Grahams family own(ed) most of the land in that area.
Bucksnort, TN
If legend is correct, the town of “Andice” Texas got its name from the local beer and ice store at the crossroads. The neon sign that said “Beer and Ice” malfunctioned and it said only “and Ice” for decades. So that is how Andice got its name.
Arkansas: Bald Knob, Pee Dee, Fifty-Six, Pickles Gap, Oil Trough, Deer, Snowball, Ozone....
There is a Ninety Six, SC (site of some fighting in the American Revolution).
Actually that would be "Ma hay ah".
“Bad Axe Mi
Cement City Mi
Christmas Mi
Climax Mi
Colon mi
Felch Mi
You left out Hell.
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