Wv monikers from ages past... (Fairmont, Clarksburg: houses, neighborhood, schools)

[David Kennedy]

Many old name places still exist in Wv...their meaning and history lost in time to us...

Snakehill Road in Sabraton surely describes the rattlesnakes of olden days...How was 'Greenbag Road named?

In White Hall/Eldora is the most beautiful 'Hog Lick Hollow...and it is as beautiful as possible...also near Fairmont is 'Pinch Gut Hollow...

Are any near you that you would share...one of my favorite little towns is Crum, Wv...

[snorpus]

An earlier name for Marlinton was Marlin's Bottom.

I always thought it strange to name a town Junior.

The ones I like best are the simple ones that are perfectly descriptive: Frost, Spruce, Piney, Fishing Creek, Buckeye.

[GottaHerdOn]

Elkins was known as Leading Creek prior to Senators Davis and Elkins moving to the area.
Beverly was known as Edmonton...

Also a small logging/mining town in Randolph County named Bemis (After one of the logging camp owners) was originally call "Fishin Hawk" which was one of the little rivers that dumps into the Cheat River. Fishin Hawk was supposedly named by indians that used the area for hunting. Bemis is where my mothers family first settled in WV in the late 1920's.

[AmericanRoadGirl]

In the Fairmont and Marion County area...

DK, homage should be paid to "the sounds of Eldora", right? Wasn't that especially true on a Saturday night? A few years later, we used to party out by the lake there.

"Graveyard Hill" - in Watson, up in the Mount Vernon Heights area, the ridge along Old Monongah Road that towered above the old Watson golf course.

That course eventually became Fairway Estates (Gil-Bob, Fairway and Golf Drive) where I grew up. There were a few spots there that took on names of their own. I have a great time reminiscing about these named places with old pals from the neighborhood.

"Deadman's Curve" This was the name Boomers kids in (and parents, too) used to refer to the big, downhill curve on Fairway Lane. You knew you were grown once you could take a skateboard down around that curve without a wipeout.

"The Brickpile" was where Golf Drive is now. One of the old Fairmont schools (I believe the one at Fifth St) was torn down and everything was dumped in this long pile. We spent half of our childhood playing there. A huge piece of thick aluminum was wedged between piles of brick and stuck out like a diving board. Perfect for hours of bouncing. A huge slab of brick wall was great to sit on with a picnic or just lay back and catch a few rays. The pile contained old slabs of floor/hexagonal white tiles. Those always stick out in my memory, too. Very, very interesting place to a kid. We weren't supposed to play there, so, of course, we played there.

The area at the bottom of Golf Drive, where it meets Gil-Bob, was once a swampy wooded area where we carved trails and a dirt track with moguls for our bikes. We called it the "Slud Track". Not sure how we came up with that name.

"The Pipeline" was the area behind St. Anthony's that had a perfect (steep) hill for sledding.

Along the Hollow theme...

"Huckleberry Hollow" - road leading under the trestle off of the river road heading down to Rivesville.

"Panther Lick Hollow" in Grant Town (my mom grew up there)

Thanks for stirring up the memories like you always do, DK.

[vec101]

Don't know the histories, but how about the towns of
Hurricane (Putnam)
Tornado (Kanawha or Lincoln)

I like the ones where no one seemed to have much of an imagination:
Cross Lanes (Kanawha)
Junction (Hampshire)
Old Fields (Hardy)
Rig (Hardy)
Buffalo (Putnam)

I second Junior, mentioned earlier.

Couple I do know the history on but was easier to refer to Wiki:
Nitro (Kanawha) -
The name Nitro comes from nitrocellulose[3]. The Nitro area was to be the US's ammunition production facility during World War I. Its name was selected by the United States government because of the establishment there during World War I of a large federal plant for the manufacture of explosives. The chemical plants in the area were able to fulfill this function during World War II, but to a lesser scale.

Eleanor (Putnam)
The town was established as a New Deal project in the 1930s and named for Eleanor Roosevelt.
Eleanor was established in 1934, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the county and developed it as a test site for families. When the town was built the houses were built to look very similar to one another and are now referred to as old Eleanor houses.

Nitro, West Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by David Kennedy

Many old name places still exist in Wv...their meaning and history lost in time to us...

Snakehill Road in Sabraton surely describes the rattlesnakes of olden days...How was 'Greenbag Road named?

In White Hall/Eldora is the most beautiful 'Hog Lick Hollow...and it is as beautiful as possible...also near Fairmont is 'Pinch Gut Hollow...

Are any near you that you would share...one of my favorite little towns is Crum, Wv...

My buddy, Norman Julian, built his home on Snakehill and wrote a book about it. I read a great book about Crum also. I wonder how many Turkey Knobs or Cherry Knobs there are in WV. We had 'em in the North View section of Clarksburg.

[Buzz123]

I was looking at a satellite view of the Clarksburg area the other day and zoomed in on Pinnickinnick Hill where we used to go hiking, and there was a trail that took us over to Glen Falls to a place called Hog Rock. There we used to climb up on this huge boulder and swing on wild grape vines playing like Tarzan. I was wondering if that place is still there. Wish I could hike over there and see.

[David Kennedy]

Norm Julian...great Wv'ian..for sure...great writer..

[creemarie]

Originally Posted by vec101

Don't know the histories, but how about the towns of
Hurricane (Putnam)
Tornado (Kanawha or Lincoln)

I don't know how true this is, but the story I've heard about Hurricane is that when George Washington was surveying the area, he said that the area now known as Hurricane, looked like a hurricane had come through. As for the pronunciation, if you've ever watched "My Fair Lady" you'll notice that they pronounce hurricane the same way that we do here. There is a lot of English ancestry in the area, so I guess it could be true...

Also, Point Pleasant has a similar story. When GW was surveying, he said that from where he was standing, it was a "pleasant point." I guess the name stuck.

Has anyone else heard this?

[BJC]

The place where I grew up (until age 10 when we moved to OH) is called White Water in Nicholas County.