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Quiz about Why Did They Call The Place That
Quiz about Why Did They Call The Place That

Why Did They Call The Place That? Quiz


Some southern cities and towns in the U.S. have interesting if not downright peculiar names. How they got their names is the subject of this quiz.

A multiple-choice quiz by logcrawler. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
logcrawler
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
357,284
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
393
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Wedowee, Alabama. Man, like, how do you even PRONOUNCE that? Well, phonetically, it would be sort of like this: Wee-DOW-wee.

Its name can be traced to the Native American Creek Indian language. What did the word 'wedowee' mean, in that tongue?
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was the first incident of the removal of Native American peoples from their homelands. What city in Mississippi stands in the location of Dancing Rabbit Creek? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Muscogee? Cherokee? Hopi? Mohawk? Tellico Plains? Who would have thought of a town in the hill country of eastern Tennessee to be lying in the "plains"?

For that matter, what on earth is a 'Tellico', anyway? And which native American tribe provided its name?
Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. What's this? A southern town whose name can mean either "mouth of the rat" or "inlet which contains rugged rocks on the bottom"?

Where in Florida would you expect to find this place?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Ah, those railroad folks! They were responsible for the naming of several cities and towns throughout the southeast as well as other parts of the US, and this one is no exception. Durham, North Carolina received its name courtesy of North Carolina Railroad, but can you tell me WHAT it was named in honor of? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Tangier, Virginia is located on Tangier Island. The Pocomoke Indians used the area as a summer gathering place prior to the arrival of the new inhabitants, Europeans who named it "Tangier". Where did these newcomers to the area hail from? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Cordele, Georgia was named for which of the following? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In the language of the Muscogee Indians, the name of the area known today as Opelika, Alabama originally meant "large swamp".


Question 9 of 10
9. There is a town in Arkansas that has such a unique name that NO OTHER place in the world shares its name. Marked Tree, Arkansas is a stand-alone kind of place, but my question is this: How did it acquire such an unusual name? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Thibodeaux, the self-proclaimed "Queen City of Lafourche" ... Lafourche Parish, that is, located in Louisiana. The name Lafourche is from the French word for "fork", a reference to the flow of the Mississippi River in that region.

Can you tell me where the city of Thibodeaux itself got ITS name from?
Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Wedowee, Alabama. Man, like, how do you even PRONOUNCE that? Well, phonetically, it would be sort of like this: Wee-DOW-wee. Its name can be traced to the Native American Creek Indian language. What did the word 'wedowee' mean, in that tongue?

Answer: old water

The tiny town of Wedowee in eastern Alabama near the Georgia border had a population of roughly 823 in 2011. The name in the Creek language meant something like "old water".

(Ironically, considering the source of its name, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, the overall population consisted of roughly 69% White; 30% Black; with JUST BARELY over 1/10th of 1% NATIVE AMERICAN, and with a very small percentage of other races represented.)
2. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was the first incident of the removal of Native American peoples from their homelands. What city in Mississippi stands in the location of Dancing Rabbit Creek?

Answer: Meridian

After the removal of the native Choctaw tribe of original Americans, European settlers engaged in receiving "free" land and they built the city of Meridian in the formerly Indian inhabited lands.

Wow! How fair of them. That was a great concept; just run off the original owners, and then give away their land!

Meridian was one of several names originally debated over for the town. Sometimes called "Sowashee" (meaning "mad river"), and with a proposal to call it "Ragsdale City" after Alabama lawyer Lewis Ragsdale, the name Meridian finally won out, largely due to the influence of the railroad personnel who had settled in the area.
3. Muscogee? Cherokee? Hopi? Mohawk? Tellico Plains? Who would have thought of a town in the hill country of eastern Tennessee to be lying in the "plains"? For that matter, what on earth is a 'Tellico', anyway? And which native American tribe provided its name?

Answer: a bean; originating from the Muscogee language

The Muscogee/Creek Indian nation used the word 'tellico' to denote a type of bean. Agriculturally, corn (maize) and beans became staples in the diet of many eastern tribes. The Muscogee were eventually displaced by their near-relatives, the Cherokee, who were in turn displaced by European settlers that arrived in the region. The Five Civilized Tribes under George Washington's "civilization plan" consisted first of the Muscogee (or Creek), and later the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and the Seminole were added to the roster.

Tellico Plains, Tennessee lies on the Tellico River where the taller Appalachian Mountains converge with the lower Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in a relative flat-land or "plains" type location.
4. What's this? A southern town whose name can mean either "mouth of the rat" or "inlet which contains rugged rocks on the bottom"? Where in Florida would you expect to find this place?

Answer: Boca Raton

Boca Raton lies near the Miami/Biscayne Bay area of southern Florida. The name Boca Raton comes from the Spanish language. Alternately, it can mean "the mouth of the rat (or mouse)" or an "inlet that has rough rocks on the bottom".

In Spanish "boca" means "mouth" and "raton" translates as "mouse" or "rat".

In a strictly nautical sense, however, "boca" can mean "inlet" while "ratones" often referred to rough rocks or stones that covered the bottom of a bay or port against which ships cables could be scraped and damaged.
5. Ah, those railroad folks! They were responsible for the naming of several cities and towns throughout the southeast as well as other parts of the US, and this one is no exception. Durham, North Carolina received its name courtesy of North Carolina Railroad, but can you tell me WHAT it was named in honor of?

Answer: a physician

Durham, North Carolina was named after a doctor; North Carolina native, Dr. Bartlett Leonidas Snipes Durham. It seems that he donated some four acres of land to the railroad to be used for a depot, and they named it Durham's Station in his honor. Later, the surrounding town became known as "Durhamville", and this was later shortened to simply "Durham".
6. Tangier, Virginia is located on Tangier Island. The Pocomoke Indians used the area as a summer gathering place prior to the arrival of the new inhabitants, Europeans who named it "Tangier". Where did these newcomers to the area hail from?

Answer: England

Tangier, Virginia is located on a set of islands in the Lower Eastern Shore area of the Chesapeake Bay. The population of the area refused to join the rest of Virginia when that state seceded from the Union as the inhabitants resisted the idea of slavery as being an acceptable norm.

John Smith, who was instrumental in establishing the colony of Virginia, first called the islands the Russell Isles. There is no single "island" of Tangier. Rather, it is made up of small islets and three ridges. A unique feature of the islands is that Tangier residents' manner of speech resembles that of Elizabethan English.
7. Cordele, Georgia was named for which of the following?

Answer: the daughter of a railroad president

Cordele, Georgia was named after Cordelia Hawkins, the daughter of the president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery rail lines, Colonel Samuel Hawkins. The Georgia Southern and Florida railroad formed a junction in the town, and it began to grow rapidly after it was incorporated as a city in 1888.
8. In the language of the Muscogee Indians, the name of the area known today as Opelika, Alabama originally meant "large swamp".

Answer: True

Opelika's rapid growth during the mid-1800s was largely due to what else but the ubiquitous railroads! During the Civil War years, Opelika suffered as much of the rest of the south, but its boom years began again shortly after the war was over. This time, however, there was a twist - lawlessness and wild and wooly times were in store for the town. In fact, many towns in the wild west could have been rivaled by its bands of ruffians.

Modern Opelika had a 2011 population of nearly 30,000 residents, and "Golf Digest" once rated the town as one of the finest areas for golf in the United States.
9. There is a town in Arkansas that has such a unique name that NO OTHER place in the world shares its name. Marked Tree, Arkansas is a stand-alone kind of place, but my question is this: How did it acquire such an unusual name?

Answer: from a tree that stood on the bank of the St. Francis River

Marked Tree, Arkansas had been named for a particular tree that stood on the banks of the St. Francis River. The tree had been slashed to mark a section of the river where Indians could simply walk about for 120 yards across land to reach the Little River in order to avoid paddling for twelve strenuous miles upstream.

While these two rivers are located only about a quarter of a mile apart, they flow in completely opposite directions.
10. Thibodeaux, the self-proclaimed "Queen City of Lafourche" ... Lafourche Parish, that is, located in Louisiana. The name Lafourche is from the French word for "fork", a reference to the flow of the Mississippi River in that region. Can you tell me where the city of Thibodeaux itself got ITS name from?

Answer: from a man who was once acting-governor of Louisiana

The town of Thibodaux was named in honor of Henry Schuyler Thibodaux, a man who at one time served briefly as acting governor of the state of Louisiana. He was serving as the President of the State Senate in 1824, but when Governor Thomas B. Robertson resigned his position in order to become a judge, Thibodaux became the acting governor.
Source: Author logcrawler

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