How Do You Pronounce Tahlequah in Washington?

[AngelaE8654]

Originally Posted by allforcats

Chehalis! That's a good one! Sequim is good. Puyallup. :-)

Yeah, no kidding. One way to tell if someone is a local instantly is if he or she can pronounce Puyallup.

[swsha4]

That's so funny! When I first started coming to Seattle and heard someone say "Puyallup", I thought they were deliberately pronouncing it wrong in order to emphasize the smell of the pulp mills in that area. lol

[OTH7905P]

I went to college in Tahlequah, Oklahoma a few decades ago and was surprised when I moved to Oregon that there was another Tahlequah on the west coast, as well as one in Alabama, the original homeland of the Cherokee's, with the exact same spelling.

I reasearched it a bit and discovered the reason for the town's name in Washington. The name 'Tahlequah' was the result of a contest for the name of a new terminal to be located between Tacoma and Vashion Island in 1919 ... won by a young lady living on Vashion Island at the time ... with a $50.00 first prize. I was never able to find any connection with that young lady and the Cherokee Indians back east. I do not think the Cherokee influence ever moved west of Oklahoma so I can only suppose that that young woman, or perhaps her parents, had some connection with the Cherokee's.

I researched in the library on Vashion Island but was never able to find any connection. I would love to know.

[exit82]

Then he'd really get his tang all toungled up.

That's funny! I'll have to remember that-

I work at a power plant in Forked River NJ. It's pronounced For-cud river-