Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

This week I actually put a theme to the weekly trivia post; but I didn’t come up with my usual ten. Sorry. I’ve been unusually busy over the last ten days and it’s only going to get worse over the next two weeks. As a matter of fact, I probably won’t be able to write anything at all for the next couple of weeks; I’m going to be far above the Arctic Circle putting in some long days in Barrow, Alaska. I guess that’s fitting ’cause Barrow’s one of those places where the sun comes up on May 10th and doesn’t set again until August 2nd. Anyway, enough of my whining. Let’s get on with the trivia…

• Since I’m going to be in Barrow I thought I’d start with this one first. Thomas Elson and William Smythe, the first Europeans to make contact with the Inupiat, named Point Barrow after the well known British mapmaker – Sir John Barrow. You never heard of him, you say? Well, let me tell you, historian Daniel Boorstin describes him as a “self-made man who became one of the great explorers of his age.” Sir John founded the Royal Geographical Society, was the chronicler of the Mutiny on the Bounty, served as the British Ambassador to China and was appointed governor of the Cape of Good Hope colony. Oh, and he was a Greenland whaler before joining the Royal Navy.
• Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, was originally known as Hot Springs but, in 1950, Ralph Edwards announced that he would broadcast his famous radio game show from the first town to rename itself Truth or Consequences. Hot Springs was the only one to do so and Ralph Edwards visited the town on the first weekend in May for the next fifty years; an event that eventually came to be known locally as “Fiesta”.
• Nope, Frankenstein, Missouri, located about twelve miles east of Jefferson City, wasn’t named for the famous monster created by Mary Shelly. It was named for Gottfried Franken (I wonder if he’s any relation to Al?); he donated the land needed to build a church there in 1890.
• Everyone who’s ever driven across I-80 in Iowa has seen the exit sign for “What Cheer.” Did you ever wonder how it got its name. Yeah, me too. I’ve heard some convoluted theories but here’s the truth: In 1636 Roger Williams left the Massacussets Bay Colony, now known as Salem, in search of religious freedom. When he landed in what would he would later name Providence, RI, he was greeted by Native Narragansett’s with “What Cheer, Netop”. Netop was the Narragansett word for “friend” and What Cheer was a greeting brought to them by English settlers. The story of this greeting eventually became part of the lore surrounding the founding of Providence. (I’m getting to the point…really) A couple of hundred years later, Peter Britton founded a small town in Iowa and decided to call it Petersburg. The town grew and in 1866 Joseph Andrews, a civil war veteran, native of Providence and recent Petersburg resident, told the “What Cheer” story to the town council and suggested that the new Petersburg Post Office be named What Cheer. It was so done and, finally, on December 1, 1879, Petersburg was officially renamed What Cheer. Whew, I bet you thought that story would never end.
• Okay, you already know that Roger Williams named Providence, Rhode Island, at the culmination of a journey in search of a land in which he could freely practice his religion. It then follows that he would name the area in honor of “God’s merciful Providence”; which he believed to be responsible for his finding just such a place.
• The city we now know as Portland, Oregon, was named after Portland, Maine; you might have guessed that. But it could just as easily have been named Boston. Here’s why: Asa Lovejoy, a Boston lawyer, purchased half of the original 640 acre claim from William Overton; who lacked the quarter required to file the land claim. The two began clearing land and doing other town founding stuff but, for some reason, Overton got bored with the whole thing and sold his remaining half to Portland Maine native Francis Pettygrove (I hope he got more than a quarter for it this time). Lovejoy and Pettygrove continued their work and, when it came time to name the new town, Lovejoy wanted to call it Boston and Pettygrove wanted to call it Portland. They flipped a coin, Pettygrove won two out of three tosses, and Portland got its name.
• Cairo, Illinois, was named after Cairo, Egypt, because the founders mistakenly believed the two to be at the same latitude. This is why southern Illinois is frequently referred to as “Little Egypt”.
• It’s said that Buffalo, NY, got its name, not from the American Bison, but from the mis-pronunciation of the French phrase Beau Fleuve, meaning “Beautiful River”, which was used to describe the Niagara River. Makes sense, I guess, ’cause Buffalo is located at the beginning of the Niagara River, which then flows northward over Niagara Falls and on into Lake Ontario.

Okay, that’s all for…awhile. If you know any interesting tidbits of information related to the way towns and cities got their names then, by all means, share it with all of us by leaving a comment.