Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Eccentric street name of the week

The middle of nowhere, you say? Wikipedia and I beg to differ:

The United States Board on Geographic Names lists five places named "Podunk":

  • Podunk, Connecticut, an area of the town of Guilford in New Haven County
  • Podunk, Ulysses, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ulysses in Tompkins County
  • Podunk, Vermont, an area of the town of Wardsboro in Windham County
  • Three places, over 100 miles (160 km) apart, in Michigan:
    • Podunk, Michigan, a community on Podunk Lake in Barry County
    • Podunk, Michigan, a crossroads in Gladwin County
    • Podunk, Michigan, an alternative name for Rogers City, MI in Presque Isle County, Michigan

Other areas known as Podunk include:

  • An area of East Hartford, CT in the Podunk River basin including Vinton's Pond
  • An area nine miles (14 km) south of Shattuck, Oklahoma (now a ghost town) in Ellis County
  • An area in Dixie National Forest containing a guard station known as the Podunk Guard Station
  • Within Worcester County, Massachusetts (and involving three New England towns, each adjacent to at least one of the other two):
    • Podunk, an unincorporated area in East Brookfield, according to The Straight Dope
    • The Podunk Pike, which runs from Sturbridge, north through East Brookfield, and into Spencer.
  • An area of northwestern Rhode Island 3 miles (4.8 km) WNW of Pascoag
  • An alternative spelling; "Podonque" is found as the name of a road leading into a settlement area (intersection of County roads 23 and 243) which is still sparsely populated, believed to having been established in the 1800s as: Podonque, Town of Rushford, New York, Allegany County, NY.
  • Poeville, Nevada a ghost town nicknamed Poedunk after John Poe founder of the mining camp.
  • An area near the Erie Canal lift bridge in Holley, New York.
  • Podunk, Wisconsin, a now defunct town containing a sizable Bradner, Charnley & Co. logging camp, in Door County, Wisconsin.

1 comment:

Oz said...

I have referred to Podunk several times in my life, but this is the first I heard there was an actual town of Podunk. That is funny.