Oh, that’s hilarious. That is the Madison most people default to. If I’m looking up something online about Madison, I ALWAYS have to specify Madison, Indiana. Not the other one.
Here in Idaho, we have a “Slickpoo,” a “Buzzard’s Roost,” and a “! Creek,” which is how the cartographers sanitized that creek you are up without a paddle. There is a giant granite monolith originally called “The Unmentionable,” another called “Elephants Perch,” and those oh! so lovely to the eyes of lonely French fur trappers peaks called the Grand Tetons, or in English, the “Big Boobs.” We also have a “Chicken Dinner Road” and a “Frozen Dog Road.” And that mysteriously named creek draining into the Salmon River called Chair Creek, which I explored as a kid and found an old outhouse built over it, apparently the chair in question.
I had no idea that’s what Grand Tetons means! Those are some amazing names.
In Indiana, we like to name towns after places in other countries and then mispronounce the hell out of them. It’s a whole thing. Peru is Pee-ru. Versailles is Ver-sales. It’s great fun.
We do that, too. Our Moscow is Moss-coe, not Moss-cow, but for a few we use the original original French pronunciations: Coeur d’Alene is pronounced “core duh lane,” but I’ve hear non-locals call “coor dee uh lean,” and Pend Orielle is pronounced locally as “pond da ray,” while some visitors call it “pend orial.”
In general, I think the farther west our people moved, the less inhibited they became with naming places.
When I was a kid growing up here, it was a lonesome beauty. One could choose to travel and not see other people for days. Now it’s filling rapidly with refugees escaping California and they all want the experience of that lonesome beauty while racing around all day on their atvs, then returning at night to their RVs parked cheek and jowl together where once there were only solitary campfires.
I was fortunate to grow up here when I did, but my grandchildren will find something much different.
We became acutely aware of blandness and identity-less-ness (new word) of Indiana when we were in England. We resorted to telling people we are from Kentucky which they knew from horse races and bourbon. Nothing I could say about Indiana helped in getting folks to understand where or "why" it is. I am a born Hoosier yet know less about this state than I do others, and little about it even interests me. I have no clue as to the whereabouts of places like Kokomo, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, or Valparaiso.
fantastic but: no mention of that girl from the Limberlost? (only knew of that from a recent 77 year old southern friend) and the bicycle movie!!!! i believe btw "Nevada Jones" would have worked equally well especially if you developed the Ford character into one who could pay for jungle adventures by cleaning up at blackjack just sayin'
I had to look up A Girl of the Limberlost, though I have heard of Gene Stratton-Porter, only because I think my daughter did some Hoosier pride play in elementary school and they mentioned Stratton-Porter. But, yes, having lived in Bloomington for six years I know all about Breaking Away! I also forgot to mention the two movies set in Madison--Some Came Running and Madison (about the Regatta). We do seem to have a thing for sports movies in Indiana.
It does stretch plausibility to think that his university paid for all of Indiana Jones's expeditions. Gambling winnings would make much more sense.
“California carries way too much baggage. Florida—the same.” Now this made me chuckle as I’ve lived in CA (and consider myself a Californian at heart although I lived there for fewer years than I did in my hometown), and now I’ve lived in FL for over 30 years. Indeed, FL has a lot of baggage and is adding more every day.
I really enjoyed your essay, funny and insightful 🙂
Lol. I love California and Florida, but they definitely have strong associations--good or bad--for people that Indiana does not have. Indiana is a big old mental blank space for most folks, I think.
I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life and I have such a love-hate relationship with this state. It’ll probably be a few years until I can move to Michigan. Some days that feels fine, and some days the idea of staying in Indiana for several more years seems torturous 🙃
Yes, I spend a lot of time asking my Hoosier friends to help me love Indiana. I want to love Indiana, but it's hard. I do love my town and most days, that feels like enough.
You know, Lake Michigan borders Indiana and Illinois as well as Michigan. You’ll find beautiful places in Illinois and Michigan; in Indiana it’s Gary and steel mills.
All this time I thought you lived in Wisconsin!
Oh, that’s hilarious. That is the Madison most people default to. If I’m looking up something online about Madison, I ALWAYS have to specify Madison, Indiana. Not the other one.
Here in Idaho, we have a “Slickpoo,” a “Buzzard’s Roost,” and a “! Creek,” which is how the cartographers sanitized that creek you are up without a paddle. There is a giant granite monolith originally called “The Unmentionable,” another called “Elephants Perch,” and those oh! so lovely to the eyes of lonely French fur trappers peaks called the Grand Tetons, or in English, the “Big Boobs.” We also have a “Chicken Dinner Road” and a “Frozen Dog Road.” And that mysteriously named creek draining into the Salmon River called Chair Creek, which I explored as a kid and found an old outhouse built over it, apparently the chair in question.
Does anyone else have a Skookumchuck Creek?
I had no idea that’s what Grand Tetons means! Those are some amazing names.
In Indiana, we like to name towns after places in other countries and then mispronounce the hell out of them. It’s a whole thing. Peru is Pee-ru. Versailles is Ver-sales. It’s great fun.
We do that, too. Our Moscow is Moss-coe, not Moss-cow, but for a few we use the original original French pronunciations: Coeur d’Alene is pronounced “core duh lane,” but I’ve hear non-locals call “coor dee uh lean,” and Pend Orielle is pronounced locally as “pond da ray,” while some visitors call it “pend orial.”
In general, I think the farther west our people moved, the less inhibited they became with naming places.
I have great sympathy for people trying to attempt to pronounce French names correctly.
I love that idea, people dumping their naming inhibitions as they headed west.
French is not a written language.
Idaho sounds really interesting! And I’ve heard it’s beautiful. Not something you can say about Indiana.
When I was a kid growing up here, it was a lonesome beauty. One could choose to travel and not see other people for days. Now it’s filling rapidly with refugees escaping California and they all want the experience of that lonesome beauty while racing around all day on their atvs, then returning at night to their RVs parked cheek and jowl together where once there were only solitary campfires.
I was fortunate to grow up here when I did, but my grandchildren will find something much different.
We became acutely aware of blandness and identity-less-ness (new word) of Indiana when we were in England. We resorted to telling people we are from Kentucky which they knew from horse races and bourbon. Nothing I could say about Indiana helped in getting folks to understand where or "why" it is. I am a born Hoosier yet know less about this state than I do others, and little about it even interests me. I have no clue as to the whereabouts of places like Kokomo, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, or Valparaiso.
fantastic but: no mention of that girl from the Limberlost? (only knew of that from a recent 77 year old southern friend) and the bicycle movie!!!! i believe btw "Nevada Jones" would have worked equally well especially if you developed the Ford character into one who could pay for jungle adventures by cleaning up at blackjack just sayin'
I had to look up A Girl of the Limberlost, though I have heard of Gene Stratton-Porter, only because I think my daughter did some Hoosier pride play in elementary school and they mentioned Stratton-Porter. But, yes, having lived in Bloomington for six years I know all about Breaking Away! I also forgot to mention the two movies set in Madison--Some Came Running and Madison (about the Regatta). We do seem to have a thing for sports movies in Indiana.
It does stretch plausibility to think that his university paid for all of Indiana Jones's expeditions. Gambling winnings would make much more sense.
I can never think about Indiana without pondering the eternal, unanswered question: Hoosier daddy?
😂
“California carries way too much baggage. Florida—the same.” Now this made me chuckle as I’ve lived in CA (and consider myself a Californian at heart although I lived there for fewer years than I did in my hometown), and now I’ve lived in FL for over 30 years. Indeed, FL has a lot of baggage and is adding more every day.
I really enjoyed your essay, funny and insightful 🙂
Lol. I love California and Florida, but they definitely have strong associations--good or bad--for people that Indiana does not have. Indiana is a big old mental blank space for most folks, I think.
I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life and I have such a love-hate relationship with this state. It’ll probably be a few years until I can move to Michigan. Some days that feels fine, and some days the idea of staying in Indiana for several more years seems torturous 🙃
Yes, I spend a lot of time asking my Hoosier friends to help me love Indiana. I want to love Indiana, but it's hard. I do love my town and most days, that feels like enough.
This is a great article and on point! The part about slavery sums up Indiana perfectly.
You know, Lake Michigan borders Indiana and Illinois as well as Michigan. You’ll find beautiful places in Illinois and Michigan; in Indiana it’s Gary and steel mills.
Well, true, though I can't totally hate on Gary. Also, I think there's a Dunes National Park up there somewhere on the border?
Yes there is, and it’s nice, but such a small beach. I hear Miller Beach isn’t bad. It borders on Gary.