ABSTRACT

The qualities of the raw backwoodsman are printed from untouched negatives in the names he has left upon the map. A sardonic humour, sometimes smudged with “that touch of grossness in our English race”, characterizes many of the backwoods place-names. In the mountains of Old Virginia we have Dry Tripe settlement and Jerk ‘em Tight. In West Virginia are Take in Creek, Get In Run, Seldom Seen Hollow, Odd, Buster Knob, Shabby Room, and Stretch Yer Neck. The train stops here twice each daywhen it goes from Phoenix and when it comes back from Los Angeles. The man who would change the name of Arkansaw, would massacre isolated communities as a pastime.