Have I told you I’m in love with Tennessee place-names?
I am a fortunate man in many ways – loving family, good health, dear friends. Another gift has been the frequent travel I’ve been lucky to do by car across my home state. In my career, all the interviews, characters, and stories have given me a treasury of place-names along the way.
They can help us with way-finding, though some are too obscure for that. But to my eye and ear, many of our place-names are at least a form of measure-less poetry. They grace our road signs and add to our culture. They are jewels that sing their own names, and they come from a thousand sources.
Some are well-known, even famous (Chattanooga, Memphis, Lynchburg) but most are not widely known. Yet they can hint at local legends or unique geography or they honor special lives.
Some speak of hardships or recall great sadness among earlier peoples (Defeated, Difficult, Shiloh). Other names may sound funny to us now (Bearwallow, Bugscuffle) or just curious to our modern ears. All, at some period, were places Tennesseans called home. Consider these …
Bell Buckle
Cage’s Bend
Castalian Springs
Chilhowee Mountain
Copper Hill
Etowah
Grand Junction
Gruetli-Laager
Lascassas
Missionary Ridge
Mudtavern
Nantahala
Nutbush
Ocoee
Only
Orlinda
Pegram
Red Boiling Springs
Reelfoot
Shiloh
Station Camp
Tellico Plains
Each one has its story, though some of these have faded from memory.
What Tennessee place-names sing to you? What is your favorite name across this long state, and what do you know of its origin?
Which places that you know have I left out?
(Please share in the ‘Write a comment’ box below.)
The metropolis of Wartburg
Dull in Dickson County