OCR Text |
Show WASHINGTON REPORT By Congressman Laurence J. Burton A few weeks ago a man in York County. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvan-ia, donated a 177-acrc tract of land for a recreational area to be named the Richard Rich-ard M. Nixon Park This is the -first but probably not the last place to be named after our 37th President. We Americans like to name places after important people. Most all of our cities and towns have Ma:a Streets, or Center Streets, hut to name a boulevard after af-ter Washington; or re-name a street to Kennedy Drive-well, Drive-well, it means a little more. We can relate to a famous person. Here in Washington, D. C. Stadium was recently renamed re-named after the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy: and ia 19:3 there was a rush to rename re-name bridges, plazas, hospitals, hos-pitals, schools libarics, parks government buildings, freeways free-ways and byways around th world after President Kennedy. Ken-nedy. Only one State, Washington, Washing-ton, bears the name of a President. But there are four states using President's names for the capital cities-Jackson. cities-Jackson. Miss.. Jefferson City. Mo.. Lincoln. Nebr. and Madison. Wis. When it comes to a coun-y well, that's something else. Every state has some county named after a president, Washington taking the lead with 31. including Utah. The Beehive State also named a county after President Garfield Gar-field and Millard County w.is named after President M.l-lard M.l-lard Fillmore, but no counties coun-ties throughout the country are named after Presidents Andrew Jackson, Taft, Wilson, Wil-son, or for the Presidents following Harding. Cf course, we don't alway? come up with famous people when we name a city or place. Sometimes we come up with an unusual name just to be a little different. For instance, ever heard of Barefoot, Kentucky. . . Dad. Wyoming . . Twin Sisters, Texas . . or Social Circle. Arkansas? If you're romantically inclined, in-clined, pack your bags and. move to Caress. West Virginia. Vir-ginia. Romance. Arkansas, Love, Mississippi, or Lovelock, Love-lock, Nevada. For those souls who can think of nothing but money, there's Cash Corner. North Carolina . . Lucre, Mississippi Missis-sippi . . . Check. Virginia . . or how about Dividend, Utah? If you're hungry, there's alwavs Cucumber, West Vir- giana; Toast. North Carolina Cocoa. Florida: and Sugar Citv. Idaho. Change your personality? Move to Beauty Kentucky: Gallant. Alabama: Ala-bama: Gay. Michigan: Grouch. Texas: and, of course Spry. L'tah. Although the city should be in Nevada. You Bet wound up in Calif. And wouldn't you love to live in Jackass, California? Turkeys must be very big in Arizona, because cities there are named: Tur-kev Tur-kev Butte. Turkey Hills, Turkey Tur-key Hill Run. Four Turkey Creeks, and three Trukey Mountains. Wouldn't it be fun to celebrate cele-brate the Yule season living in Christmas, Florida or Mis-.U'toe. Kentucky North Pole. Alaska or how about Santa Clans. Indiana? The English educator and philosopher Berkeley is probably pro-bably turning over in h's grave, what with all the student stu-dent unrest on tlie Berkeley campus. S vms the good educator, edu-cator, after failing to start a college in the Bermudas, came to America and donated donat-ed books to Harvard College-. In 18-iS. when the University of California was searching for a suitable name for its campus town. Frederick Billings. Bil-lings. California's first lawyer, law-yer, srgresti-d Berkeley, and the name stuck. (Billings, by the way. gave Billings, Mon-' tana, its name. As we all know. Utah's name came from the In dians. As early as 1720 the Spanish had recorded the name of an Indian tribe living liv-ing in the area as the Yutta. The Americans spelled the name as anything from Ute. Uta. to Utah. When Brigham Young entered the valley in 1T.17. he changed the name to Deserot. taken from the Book of Mormon. Tin1 name was not recognized by non-Mormons, non-Mormons, and too. because it was so similar to desert, the name was turned down in favor of Utah. The Mormons didn't like i J . f T(-il 1 r w nnon the name of Utah, because the Indian Tribe at that time was known to lie extremely dirty and lice-infested. But with the Compromise of lf?.r)0, the government firmly held that the area should be the Territory of Utah, until stall hood in lf!W. One of the strangest names, nam-es, however, came from Massachusetts where there's supposed to lie a town and lake with the name of: Char-r.oiTg.inog Char-r.oiTg.inog irmancbauggngogg -rhauhu naming a magg! Wonder Won-der what the post office d-s Willi that town's postal mark'' Then, of course, there':! one post mark with sup. plies a good ending to this week's report. From tlie state of Ti'xas. there's n town nanv-d "Goodnight." |