Arizona Oddities

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us

logo

Arizona Oddities

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us
Dose of HistorySmall Town Scene
Home›Dose of History›Arizona Place Names (Pt. 3): Surprising Towns Named After People

Arizona Place Names (Pt. 3): Surprising Towns Named After People

By Andrea Aker
April 12, 2010
27410
0

Arizona Place Names (Pt. 1) explores a slew of cities with Spanish, Indian and random origins. Arizona Place Names (Pt. 2) touches on place names stemming from prominent people and patriotism. This post notes several cities and towns that are surprisingly named after people.

Excerpt from Arizoniana by Marshall Trimble, the state’s official historian.

Long ago, Arizona settlers felt inspired to attach names to the special places they found. Sometimes they achieved palpable immortality by naming it after themselves; and sometimes it backfired.

Arizona State FlagLike the time Henry Mortimer Coane was running a small store in the Verde Valley. Folks wanted to use the place as a post office, so Coane filled out the paperwork and applied to Washington and requested it be named Coaneville after himself. Much to Mr. Coane’s disappointment some bureau­crat got the letters mixed up and the place was officially named Cornville.

Contrary to logical assumption, Arizona towns Forepaugh, Cowlic, Hereford, Land, Light, Love and Snowflake were, in fact, named for people. Even Pinetop wasn’t named for the trees, but for a tall bushy-haired fellow who ran a saloon there in the 1890s.

Fry, located in the foothills of the beautiful Huachuca Mountains in Cochise County, was named for Oliver Fry. During the 1950s, local promoters changed the name to the more mellifluous-sounding, Sierra Vista. “Who in their right mind,” they reasoned, “would want to move to Fry, Arizona?”

The original name for Bowie was Teviston, for James Tevis, an early Arizona adventurer who donated the land for a town-site and a railroad right-of-way. However, a railroad official named Bean suggested the town be named for him. “Shucks,” Tevis retorted, “these folks eat beans three times a day and they’ve had all they can stand.” Mr. Bean failed to see the humor and retaliated by insisting the railroad call the place Bowie Station for nearby Fort Bowie. Later it was shortened to just plain Bowie.

(Visited 514 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts:

  1. Arizona Place Names: A Slew of Cities and Counties with Spanish, Indian and Random Origins
  2. Arizona Place Names (Pt. 2): Origins from Prominent People, Patriotism in Old Arizona
  3. Trivia on Arizona Cities & Towns: Can You Pass?
  4. Mogollon Monikers: Origins of Place Names in Arizona’s Rim Country
  5. Life in Old Boom Towns with Jackass Prospectors
Tagsearly arizonaplace namessmall towns

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Arizona Oddities Archive

Most Popular Posts

  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home
  • How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard
  • What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences…
  • Did You Know it’s Against the Law to Grow…
  • Four Deserts, One State

This Week Past Years

2019

  • 5 Facts About the Southwest’s Strangest, Smelliest Inhabitant – The Javelina

2015

  • A Beer Between the Forked Tree in Flagstaff

2014

  • Mow the Lake?

2013

  • Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

2012

  • Walk in the Path of Ancient Hohokam at Sears-Kay Ruin
  • Rest Stop Marks Border of Gadsden Purchase

2010

  • Why Do People Paint Citrus Tree Trunks White?
  • Elephant Feet in Northern Arizona?
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Find a Famous Writer and Explorer's Mountain Retreat in Greer

    Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 31, 2020
  • thousands of Mexican free tail bats make Phoenix tunnel their summer home

    Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 17, 2020
  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home

    By Andrea Aker
    January 3, 2011
  • Javelina

    How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard

    By Andrea Aker
    November 23, 2011
  • Phil Motta
    on
    August 27, 2021

    Why Does Downtown Phoenix Seem to Have Two Downtowns?

    I know this post ...
  • Carol
    on
    October 17, 2020

    The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax

    lol ... these "clues" ...

Follow us

© Copyright 2009 – 2023 Aker Ink, LLC :: Arizona Oddities is published by Aker Ink.