Today is the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, and to honour the occasion I’m digging into the name Vancouver. The we know that city of Vancouver was named after … Read More →
Westward Ho!
Westward Ho! is a village on the sea in Devon, England. Like Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! the exclamation point is, in fact, part of the town’s name. Westward Ho! was named after the novel Westward Ho! by … Read More →
Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!
St-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Québec has one of the oddest names that I’ve seen. Not because it sounds like something else, but because it’s just so fun to say and because it’s the only town in the … Read More →
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Here is a place with a fitting name. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a cliff in southern Alberta where the natives hunted buffalo by driving entire herds over the cliff starting about five thousand years ago. … Read More →
Hell's Gate
Hell’s Gate is a narrowing in the Fraser River, in British Columbia. The Fraser is a very large river, and by the time it reaches Hell’s Gate, a few hundred kilometers from its mouth, there … Read More →
Punkin Center
Having a little déja vu? Nope. Today I’m talking about Punkin Center, Colorado, not Pumpkin Center, OK, or in any of the other 14 states where there’s a Pumpkin Center. The name of Punkin Center, … Read More →
Pumpkin Center
So, I don’t actually have a story to about why Pumpkin Center is called Pumpkin Center, but I do have some interesting, random, Pumpkin Center facts. I was looking for information on Pumpkin Center, MO, … Read More →
Black Jack
Black Jack, MO, is not not named after the card game. In the 1840s there was a cluster of three Black Jack oak trees at the intersection of Parker and Old Halls Ferry Roads, which … Read More →
Tightwad
I posted about a few places in Tennessee a couple of weeks ago and it looks like this week might be turning into Missouri week. Today’s name: Tightwad, MO. So, how does a town get … Read More →
Turin
While the Winter Olympics are on in Vancouver, we’ll be exploring the origins of the names of former host cities of the winter olympic games, working more or less in reverse chronological order. Today we’re … Read More →