On August 18, 1958, Roy Harris, four-time Texas Golden Gloves champion who had a 24-0 record as a heavyweight, was handed his first loss in his bid to strip Floyd Patterson of his title.
Harris hailed from Cut n’ Shoot, Texas, and much hype was involved in promoting the match involving the name of the incorporated community that eventually Harris, who became a lawyer, drew up the incorporation papers for incorporating Cut n’ Shoot as a town.
Prepared to enter my senior year at McDowell High School in Floyd County, Ky., I remember the bout very well. Harris knocked the champion down, but by the 13th round, Patterson had floored Harris four times to retain the title after Harris’ handlers stopped the fight, leading Harris to remark, “I did my best.”
The name, Cut n’ Shoot, left its impression on me, and I have since traveled in 45 states over the past 63 years, visiting some very interesting places in terms of unique names.
McDowell, the community in which I grew up, was an unincorporated rural community as was Cut n’ Shoot, and the names given to the geographic areas of McDowell remain indelible in my memory: Dog Town, Frog Town, Bristle Buck, Royal Holler, Doty Creek and Frasure Creek. Both creeks flow into Left Beaver Creek that often floods McDowell.
In Floyd County, there are some unusual names of places although none are cities, mostly unincorporated settlements such as Muddy Gut, Hi Hat, Price, Ligon, Orkney, Drift, Jump, Printer, Pyramid, Halo, Hippo, Hite, Midas, Tram, Blue Moon, Auxier and Wonder. The only settlement in the county named for a state is Arkansas.
During my travels across the country, I passed through many towns that were named for foreign cities. London, Paris and Versailles, all in Ky., come to mind.
While those are not unusual names, I have driven on Route 66 near Flagstaff, Ariz. where nearby Two Guns is a ghost town, and I have driven in Tulsa, Okla. near the city of Broken Arrow.
I once spent the night in Tumcumcari, N.M., thought to be the city with the oldest name in the state. Linguists believe that the name of the city is a derivative of the Comanche word for “look out.” Tumcumcari Mountain overlooks the city located in Quay County, lending logic to the linguists’ conclusion.
Although I have driven through such cities as Amarillo and Shamrock in Texas, I never visited China, Texas. Yes, some cities in the U.S. are named for foreign countries, and there is a town of less than 3,000 in Herkimer County, New York named Russia.
Also, cities and places in the U.S. bear Russian names. In Idaho there is a city named Moscow, and in Okla., one can visit the city named Kremlin.
Another influence Russia has had on the naming of places in America includes the Russian River that I have watched pour into the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. Many of Virginia’s cities are named for cities abroad. Cities in Virginia named for cities in Scotland are Ruther Glen, Kilmamock, Aldie, Bremo Bluff, Dumfries, Ettrick and Glasgow.
Cities in Virginia named for cities in England are Portsmouth, Richmond, Claremont and Winchester.
Crewe, Malvern Hills and Shadwell are cities in Virginia named for cities in Ireland, and Kinsale is an unincorporated area of Virginia named for Kinsale, Ireland as well.
Lady Smith is a city in Virginia named for a city in South Africa.
As for the duplication of names, there are 24 other places in America named Lexington besides Lexington, Va., the city named for the Battle of Lexington fought in Massachusetts n April 19, 1775, the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. The name, Lexington, is believed to have been coined from Laxton, England where Lord Lexington reportedly once dwelled.
In “Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare’s character, Juliet, asked, “What’s in a name?”
Shakespeare promptly provided the audience with the answer, “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
While there are 18 places named Covington in America, there is only one place in America named Clifton Forge, once a city that reverted to a town in July of 2001.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.