History of Unusually Named Places

1. Boring, Oregon

Boring is an unincorporated community located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 212. It is approximately eight miles south of Gresham and about the same distance from Clackamas, both suburbs of Portland. The town is roughly twenty miles southeast from downtown Portland. The community was named after W. H. Boring, an early resident of the area. His grandson, W.H Boring, at age 91 was still a part of the community until 2002. Boring was platted in 1903 as "Boring Junction". The post office was established and named "Boring" the same year, and the builders of the interurban railway adopted Boring as the name of the community. The name "Boring" is embraced by locals, however, and found in many local businesses, resulting in many road signs that seem humorous to outsiders.

2. Why, Arizona

Why is a small unincorporated rural community in Pima County, Arizona, United States. It lies near the western border of the Tohono O'Odham Indian Reservation and due north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona. It is approximately thirty miles north of the Mexican border where Lukeville, Arizona, and Sonoita, Sonora, Mexico, border each other, and ten miles south of Ajo, Arizona. The population in Why at the 2000 census was approximately 113. The unusual name of the town comes from the fact that the two major highways, State Routes 85 and 86, originally intersected in a Y-intersection. At the time of its naming, Arizona law required all city names to have at least three letters, so the town's founders named the town "Why" as opposed to simply calling it "Y."

3. Whynot, Mississippi

Whynot is a rural unincorporated community in southeastern Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States. Its history dates back to the 1840s.The area was first served by a post office called Whitesville, which was established June 23, 1852. The name was changed to Why Not December 30, 1852.

4. Loveladies, New Jersey 

Loveladies is a neighborhood and unincorporated area located in the northernmost portion of Long Beach Township, New Jersey. The area is on Long Beach Island, between Barnegat Light and Harvey Cedars. When the U.S. Life Saving Stations were established on Long Beach Island back in the 1870's, they were usually given names, and there was a great deal of discussion on what to name Station Number 114. It was finally named after an island in the bay owned by Thomas Lovelady, a hunter and sportsman. The small community has had several other names through the years. The railroad stop had been called Club House, and around the time of World War II it acquired the name of Long Beach Park. Then in 1952, the area officially became Loveladies, keeping the name originally given to the site.

5. Lonelyville, New York

Lonelyville is a small beach community located in the western end of Fire Island in the town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Lonelyville has approximately 60 houses and is located between Dunewood and Atlantique. It is unclear when and why Lonelyville earned its name. However it appears that the name was already in use by the 1880’s when Captain Selah Clock built a four hundred foot pier into the ocean and established the Fire Island Fishing Company there. The pier remained standing long after Captain Clock’s fishing company shut down and became somewhat of a landmark for that part of Fire Island. The Hurricane of 1938 finally took what remained of the slowly deteriorating pier. As recently as August 2008, footings for the pier could be seen about 100 feet off the shore and submerged 20 feet under water.

A 1924 picture of "The Bottle"

6. The Bottle, Alabama

The Bottle, Alabama is a community located in the northern corporate limits of Auburn, Alabama. The Bottle is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and Alabama Highway 147, five miles (8 km) north of downtown Auburn, and adjacent to the Auburn University North Fisheries Research Complex. The Bottle is named for the bright orange wooden replica of a Nehi soda bottle which stood in the location for nine years during the 1920s and 1930s.

Built in 1924, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", The Bottle (sometimes referred to as The "Nehi Inn") was built by John F. Williams owner of the Nehi Bottling Company in Opelika, Alabama. The Bottle stood 64-feet (19.5 m) tall, and measured forty-nine feet (14.94 m) in diameter at the base, and 16 feet (4.88 m) at the cap. The ground floor was a grocery store and service station, and the 2nd and 3rd floors were living quarters and storage. The neck of the Bottle had windows so it could be used as an observation tower where you could see miles of countryside. The "bottle cap" was the roof. Inside there was a spiral oak stairway. Fire consumed the Bottle in 1933, destroying the largest bottle in the world and ending an era of a gathering place for tourists and local men to swap yarns around a potbellied wood stove, BBQs and a party every Friday night on the balcony above the service station. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped briefly at The Bottle after visiting Auburn, as did Minnie Pearl. Even though the Bottle structure no longer exists, the name does and is still on Alabama maps listing the area as "The Bottle."

"The Bottle" today

Currently, in The Bottle's former location stands only an empty lot. The property was put on sale in 2005 by First Realty of Auburn. The land was purchased in early 2006 by The Hayley Redd Development Company.

7 Condemned Bar, California

Condemned Bar is a former settlement in Yuba County, California. It lay at the confluence of Dobbins Creek and the Yuba River 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southeast of Dobbins, at an elevation of 548 feet (167 m). Condemned Bar still appeared on maps as of 1947.

8. Loafer's Glory, Carolina

Loafer's Glory is a wide place in the road in the mountains of western North Carolina. At last count less than a hundred souls live in the community.

Road to Hell

9. Hell, Michigan

Hell, Michigan is an unincorporated community in Putnam Township of Livingston County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is near the border with Washtenaw County, about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Ann Arbor. Hell is situated 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Pinckney via Patterson Lake Road. The unofficial population is 266.

Hell grew up around a sawmill, gristmill, distillery and tavern. All three were operated by George Reeves. Reeves moved to the area in the 1830s from the Catskill Mountains in New York. He purchased a sawmill on what is now known as Hell Creek in 1841. In addition to the sawmill Reeves purchased 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land surrounding the mill. Reeves then built a gristmill on Hell Creek which was powered by water that was impounded by a small dam across the creek. Farmers in the area were quite successful in growing wheat and had an abundance of grain. Reeves opened a distillery to process the excess grain into whiskey. Reeves also opened a general store/tavern on his property.

There are two theories for the origin of Hell's name. The first is that a pair of German travellers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schön hell!" - translated as, "So beautifully bright!" Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called, and replied, "I don't care; you can name it Hell for all I care." The name became official on October 13, 1841The second theory is tied to the "hell-like" conditions encountered by early explorers including mosquitoes, thick forest cover and extensive wetlands.

10. Oatmeal, Texas

Oatmeal is an unincorporated community in Burnet County, Texas, United States. It is situated along RM 243, approximately eight miles southeast of Burnet and 56 miles northwest of Austin.

The area's first settlers were German families during the late 1840s. The community's name is either an alteration of a Mr. Othneil – the area's first gristmill owner, or a supposed translation of the name Habermill (Haber being a German dialect word for Hafer, "oats"). A post office was established in 1853 under the name Oatmeal. In 1936, Oatmeal had a school, two churches, and scattered dwellings. By 1990, the population was around twenty – consisting mostly of families engaged in farming and ranching. That figure remained the same in 2000.

Since 1978, the community of Oatmeal and the nearby city of Bertram have celebrated an annual Oatmeal Festival. Ken Odiorne, a local resident, started the tradition by writing to the major producers of oatmeal at the time to ask for assistance. Only one company, National Oats, responded.The Oatmeal Festival has played a significant role in the continued notoriety and existence of Oatmeal, Burnet County's second oldest community.

Sandwich Town Hall

11. Sandwich, Massachusetts

Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The Town Hall is located right next to the Dexter Grist Mill, in the historic district of town.

The Town of Sandwich is a seaside community of 23,000 residents located in the northwest corner of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Incorporated in 1639, Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod and one of the oldest towns in the United States, settled by European immigrants nearly 150 years before the American Revolution.

Sandwich is a quaint and quiet New England town with seaside charm. The Town's historic charm and uniqueness, combined with its ideal location, make Sandwich an attractive place to both visit and live.

12. Pie Town, New Mexico

Pie Town is an unincorporated town on U.S. Route 60 in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. Pie Town is located along U.S. Route 60, approximately 2.5 hours' drive from Albuquerque and 5.5 hours' drive from Phoenix Its name comes from a dried-apple pie business that was established by Clyde Norman in the early 1920s. Pie Town hosts a Pie Festival on the second Saturday of each September.

13. Greasy, Oklahoma

Greasy is a census-designated place (CDP) in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the census of 2000, there were 387 people, 133 households, and 109 families residing in the CDP.

14. Brilliant, Ohio

Brilliant is an unincorporated community in eastern Wells Township, Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. It was named after the glass factory that once was located in the town. An Ohio River town, it is located below Mingo Junction and above Rayland. The community is part of the Weirton–Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area.

15. Wealthy, Texas

Wealthy is on Farm Road 3 twenty-one miles southwest of Centerville and five miles west of Normangee in southwestern Leon County. The post office operated from 1894 until 1914. According to one source, the town was originally named Poor, but when it applied for a post office the name was rejected. The name Wealthy was substituted and the application accepted. In 1896 Wealthy reported a population high of ninety. The community had a Baptist church, a barbershop, a jeweler, two gristmills and gins, sorghum manufacturers, a school, a general store, and a blacksmith. In 1907 there was one school. By 1914 Wealthy had a population of twenty-five, a general store, and a telephone connection. In 1948 it had a church, a school, and several scattered dwellings. In 1990 a cemetery and Mount Zion church were located northeast of Wealthy.