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| J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) "Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth," 1842 Source: Web Gallery of Art (http://www.wga.hu/index1.html) |
Late last night the rain was knocking at my window
I moved across the darkened room and in the lampglow
I thought I saw down in the street
The spirit of the century
Telling us that we're all standing on the border
Al Stewart, "On the border," from the album The Year of the Cat (1976).
Let me tell you a story about a little town that changed its name.
Somewhere back in the 1920s (the town was never incorporated, so records are a little thin) there was a gas station and restaurant on the road to Las Vegas. It was owned and operated by Pete MacIntyre, and it was apparently called "Bordertown" because it was located on the border between California and Nevada. According to our friend Wikipedia Mr. MacIntyre wasn't making much of a living, so he started bootlegging.
Mr. MacIntyre -- who was widely known as "Whiskey Pete" -- died in 1933. After that there seems to be some disagreement as to what happened. According to Wikipedia ownership of the site seems to have passed to a Mr. Dale Hamilton who built a new gas station and put in a bar and some slot machines and called his place "STATE LINE BAR." According to the Las Vegas Sun it passed to Mr. Ernest Jay Primm who "added a 12-room hotel and tiny casino to the property, eventually developing it into the successful Whiskey Pete's hotel-casino" (Thompson 1996).
In any case, by the 1960s (if not earlier) the town was called "STATE LINE" (note that that's two words -- it's important). And everyone seemed content.
And then, in 1996, the name was changed to PRIMM, NEVADA.
Why? Because on the California-Nevada border, on the shores of Lake Tahoe, there's another town: STATELINE, NEVADA (note that that's one word). It was apparently decided (I have no idea who made the decision) that having two towns in the same state named STATE LINE and STATELINE was unacceptable. So one changed.
The odd thing is, this really doesn't seem to have been necessary. There are at least a dozen "STATELINES" in the United States; Indiana and Pennsylvania each have three, and nobody seems to be especially bothered.
According to Wikipedia we have:
- Stateline, CA (near Lake Tahoe) [38.958333, -119.943889] *
- State Line, ID (on the Washington border) [47.705, -117.038056]
- State Line, IN (on the Illinois border) [39.436944, -87.529444]
- State Line City, IN (also on the Illinois border) [40.196667, -87.527222]
- State Line, IN (on the Michigan border) [41.758611, -86.250833]
- State Line, KY (on the Tennessee border) [36.510833, -89.120278]
- State Line, MS (on the Alabama border) [31.437778, -88.476111]
- Stateline, NV (on the California border) [38.970556, -119.945833]
- State Line, PA (on the Maryland border) [39.725, -78.7675]
- State Line, PA (also on the Maryland border) [39.7225,-77.724167]
- State Line, PA (on the New York border) [42.248737, -79.767510]
- State Line, SC (on the North Carolina border] [35.176667, -81.8]
Now not long ago I was browsing reddit.com (my favorite source of cat pictures) and I found a discussion dealing with cities that are named for the territories they border (the original post had been focused on CALEXICO and MEXICALI -- both named for their border location). I got curious.
How many towns in the US are named for their location on a border?
I started looking, slowly and carefully, at the borders between US states. I started finding towns. It was slightly tedious, but I felt a certain pride in my work.
And then I thought of Wikipedia.
Yeah, it turns out I'm not the first to think about this. For a while I was feeling fairly stupid (even more than usual). However, when I looked a little closer I was delighted to find out that I'd found at least two towns that Wikipedia had overlooked.
That's right world-wide highly respected (and occasionally unfairly derided) universal source of knowledge! I beat you! Me! The guy wasting time on this mind-bogglingly trivial task!
SICK BURN!!!
So anyway, here's my list of sixteen proudly named bordertowns:
- Alcan Border AK (Alaska-Yukon border) [62°39'42"N 141°09'40"W]**
- Calneva CA (California-Nevada border) [40°09'10"N 120°00'32"W]
- Cal-Nev-Ari NV (CA-NV-AZ border) [35°18'12"N 114°52'51"W]
- Delmar DE (Delaware-Maryland border) [38°27'23"N 75°34'38"W]
- Flomaton AL (Florida-Alabama border) [31°0'32"N 87°15'21"W]
- Florala AL (also on the Florida-Alabama border [31°0'28"N 86°19'30"W]
- Idavada ID (Idaho-Washington border) [41°59'50"N 114°38'29"W]
- Marydel DE (Delaware-Maryland border) [39°06'44"N 75°44'40"W]
- Marydel MD (Maryland-Delaware border) [39°06'48"N 75°44'60"W]
- Texarkana AR (Arkansas-Texas border) [32°25'59"N 94°01'14"W]
- Texarkana TX (Texas-Arkansas border) [33°26'14"N 94°04'03"W]
- Texhoma OK (Oklahoma-Texas border) [36°30'16"N 101°47'11"W]
- Texhoma TX (Texas-Oklahoma border) [36°29'48"N 101°47'07"W]
- Texline TX (Texas-New Mexico border) [36°22'41"N 103°01'23"W]
- Ucolo UT (Utah-Colorado border) [37°51'39"N 109°03'53"W]
- Wyocolo WY (Wyoming-Colorado border) [41°00'17"N 106°43'30"W]***
- Inyokern CA (located on the Inyo County-Kern County boundary) [35°35'49"N 117°48'45"W]
- Lineboro MD (located on the Mason-Dixon line) [39°43'09.84"N 76°50'41.03"W]
All right, now that I've found all these towns, what do they have in common?
With the exception of Texarkana TX, they're all pretty small towns (or unincorparated areas). Again with the exception of Texarkana (and possibly Delmar and the two Marydels), they're usually located in the middle of nowhere. These places are essentially named for the only thing that makes them even mildly interesting (and perhaps economically viable) -- the border.
Does that seem surprising? It shouldn't. There are at least eleven different ways of naming places:
- Associative (e.g. Mill Creek WA)
- Commemorative (e.g. Houston TX)
- Descriptive (e.g. Rocky Mountains)
- Error (e.g. West Indies)
- Folk Etymology (e.g. Picketwire River CO from the French "Purgatoire" )
- Incident (e.g. Battle Creek MI)
- Made-Up (e.g. Truth or Consequences NM)
- Possessive (e.g. Pittsburgh PA)
- Praising (e.g. Paradise CA)
- Relocated (e.g. Cairo IL)
- Unknown/Miscellaneous (e.g. Oregon)
Naming your town for its only interesting feature is actually pretty reasonable. And I say this as someone who has lived for many years in a place called "La Mesa" -- literally "the table" (because it's a raised flat surface****).
Bordertowns have a kind of mystique -- there have been at least six movies and televisions series called "Bordertown." Authors, from Thomas the Rhymer (1220 – 1298) to Lord Dunsany (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 1878–1957) to Terri Windling (1958-) have written of the dangers and delights of the borders of Elfland.
I'm fairly certain none of these towns border Elfland. But they may have cheaper gas or lower sales taxes or more liberal liquor laws. And that can constitute a kind of mild delight.
Notes
** Also known as Port Alcan. And it's worth noting that this is very like "Calexico," as mentioned above -- a name based on the border of a state and another country. Oh, and one more thing -- NOT ON WIKIPEDIA!! I FOUND IT ALL BY MYSELF!!!
*** NOT ON WIKIPEDIA!! I FOUND IT ALL BY MYSELF!!! Also "Wycolo" and "Wyocolo" seem to be the same place.
**** Technically it's an uplifted marine terrace, typical of an emergent coast (and in the case of Southern California, a tectonically active region).
References
10 Types of Toponyms: Online: http://www.murrieta.k12.ca.us/cms/lib5/CA01000508/Centricity/Domain/1814/toponym%20assignment2012.pdf
Ashley, Leonard R.N. Folk Etymology in the Place Names of the United States. Online: https://www.scribd.com/document/74618230/69-Folk-Etymology-in-the-Place-Names-of-the-United-States
Hannigan, Chris. 2011. Quirky Border Towns of North America. Online: http://googlesightseeing.com/2011/08/quirky-border-towns-of-north-america/
Howard, Marvin ElRoy. 1996. "See ye na yon narrow road?" The search for Elfland in folklore of the Scottish border. MA Thesis, University of Iowa. Online: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=17192&context=rtd
Primm, Nevada. Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primm,_Nevada
Thompson, Gary. 1996. Primm newest prime property. Las Vegas Sun, December 4, 1996. Online:
https://lasvegassun.com/news/1996/dec/04/primm-newest-prime-property/
