From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow

Title: From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow

Author: Mark Monmonier

Pages: 149

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is a deep look into how places are named and what the government is doing (and has done) to remove inflammatory and derogatory place-names from official maps. The book dives into names based on derogatory terms (negro, nigger, chink, etc) and sexual in nature (nipple, tit, teat, etc.). Also explored is how places are named in Antarctica, the ocean floor, the moon and Mars.

My Review: As I expected, this is a fairly in-depth educational book with an eye-catching title. I quite enjoyed it because geography is one of my very favorite hobbies and I learned quite a bit. A few tidbits of my learning: Out of 100 place-names in the US with nipple in the title, 11 places in Utah are named either Mollys Nipple, Mollies Nipple or Molleys Nipple. (With 32 of the 100 total places in the US in Utah. Obviously the pioneers were obsessed with nipples...). A short list of some of the more interesting place-names (Many of these names have since been changed due to their derogatory nature):

○ Squaw Teat Butte (SD)
○ Niggerhead Point (NY)
○ Nigger Bay (NC)
○ Nigger Skull Mountain (NC)
○ Jap Creek (UT)
○ Jap Valley (UT)
○ Jewtown (GA)
○ Chinaman Spring (WY)
○ Nigger Jack Hill (CA)
○ Chinks Point (MD)
○ Polack Lake (MI)
○ Negro Marsh (NY)
○ Intercourse (PA)
○ Blue Ball (PA)
○ Coon Butt (TN)
○ Bloody Dick Creek (MT)
○ Wee Wee Hill (IN)
○ Virgin, Virgins Breasts and Nipple Islands (ME)
○ Brassiere Hills (AK)
○ Squaw Nipple (MT)
○ Squaw Nipple Peak (CA)
○ Whorehouse Meadow (OR)
○ Squaw Tit (AZ)
○ Dildo (Newfoundland)
○ Gayside (Newfoundland)
○ Swastika (Ontario)
○ BS Gap (AZ)
○ S.O.B. Hill (UT)
○ Shitten Creek (OR)
○ Kokshittle Arm (BC)

I'll see you all on the Virgin's Breasts.

From the Book: "(p. 16) The intriguing history of American applied toponymy includes a few notoriously unpopular sweeping decisions a year after President Benjamin Harrison created the Board on Geographic Names in 1890. Harrison acted at the behest of several government agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was responsible for mapping the nation's coastline, harbors, and coastal waterways. Troubled by inconsistencies in spelling, board members voted to replace centre with center, drop the ugh from names ending in orough, and shorten the suffix burgh to burg. Overnight, Centreview (in Mississippi) became Centerview, Isleborough (in Maine) became Isleboro, and Pittsburgh (in Pennsylvania) lost its final h and a lot of civic pride. The city was chartered in 1816 as Pittsburg, but the Post Office Department added the extra letter sometime later. Although both spellings were used locally and the shorter version had been the official name, many Pittsburghers complained bitterly about the cost of reprinting stationery and repainting signs. Making the spelling consistent with Harrisburg, they argued, was hardly a good reason for truncating the Iron City's moniker--although Harrisburg was the state capital, it was a smaller and economically less important place. Local officials protested that the board had exceeded its authority. The twenty-year crusade to restore the final h bore fruit in 1911, when the board reversed itself--but only for Pittsburgh. In 1916 the board reaffirmed its blanket change of centre, borough, and burgh as well as its right to make exceptions for Pittsburgh and other places with an entrenched local usage."