Twists & Turns: Would You Live in a Town With an Unusual Name?

I have always thought ‘Magnolia’ was a pretty name for a town. It gives you thoughts of the stately, beautiful trees with fragrant blossoms that grow all over the place. Their huge limbs were great for climbing when I was a kid. I’ve always thought that Magnolia is a name we can be proud of.

But, what if you lived in a town with a horrid name, or even one that made people laugh if you said it was your hometown? I did a little research and came up with some of those kinds of names that made me wonder why people didn’t change the name or maybe just move away.

Believe me, there are a lot more all over the country but I only added the ones that are in the south.

Burnt Corn, Alabama- It started out in 1880 with 33 people and now has over 8,000. The settlement and the creek may have been named for an incident in which passersby found a pile of parched corn, a food often used by Creek Indians when traveling, although the oral tradition of some Burnt Corn families holds that the name came from the burning of corn fields as part of the scorched earth policies during the Creek War in the early 1800s.

Possum Grape, Arkansas- This little village was founded in 1954 and again there was a dispute on what the name should be. Some said Possum and some said Grape so as a compromise it became Possum Grape.

Weiner, Arkansas- This town has nothing to do with its name. It is really known for rice growing and duck hunting and was originally called West Prairie, but after the railroad came through, it was changed to the name of a St. Louis railroad official. Mr. Weiner..hmmm..wasn’t there once a congressman by that name?

Two Egg, Florida- Back in the 1930’s during the Depression, people had a hard time making money so they began to trade for goods at the general store. Two young boys started bringing in two eggs to use as barter. People started referring to the store as the Two Egg Store and the name stuck for the name of the town as well. I like this story. B e n e v o l e n c e , Georgia- Named for a person giving land to the settlement for the first Baptist church to be built in 1831. Unfortunately, after struggling for over one hundred years, the town was officially dissolved in 1995. This makes me sad, because it started in such a generous manner.

Frogtown, Virginia- Well, this name seems to have been very popular because there are several Frogtown’s in the state. The most wellknown is in Clarke County smack dab in the middle of the Shenandoa Valley. Not