What's In A Name by Carolyn Rahe Our normally-quiet Southern Indiana county has been abuzz for the last several months. While most rural communities have adopted the “street name” system, we have hung on to rural routes with box numbers. What started as rumor became fact: we would be getting street addresses. Over the last few months people have been excitedly waiting to hear what their roads would be named. When I helped out at the election in the fall the folks whose roads had been named would proudly cross their rural route addresses off the roster and announce, “That's the old address. We have a new address!” and fill in the blanks with such picturesque-sounding names as Hillview Drive, Scenic Vista Overlook or Pleasant Hill. I have wondered what our road would be named. It is a pretty, and peaceful country road that doesn't see much traffic. You can take a walk down the road in summer and it feels more like hiking along a mountain trail. You'll see butterflies in the air, frogs jumping into puddles, wildflowers in the fields, pheasants and grouse, yet you're unlikely to see a vehicle or another person. The road gets so little traffic that you'll even see a strip of knee-high grass down the center of the road. Before I go further, let me point out that the road is technically a “gravel road”. Granted, after heavy rains much of the gravel flows off the road and into the creeks that cross over the road. No, the creeks don't wind under bridges - the bridges were washed out long before we moved here. The creeks just cross the road, so if there's been a lot of rain locals know to take another route, unless they have four-wheel drive. But as I said, our road doesn't see much traffic anyway, and the ruts which start just past our place keep it that way. I once had the privilege of meeting someone from the county highway crew, and explained to him which road we lived on. Just out of curiosity, I asked why the county doesn't do anything with our road? “Oh that road ... we were told a few years back we could cross it off our list unless someone complained.” Apparently no one has complained - not even me. The road is in good condition up to our place, and from there on it goes downhill. If they started taking better care of our road who knows what kind of traffic jams it could lead to? What kind of name would our road get? Lots of people were getting roads named after their family. Wouldn’t that be impressive? Maybe it would be named after the trees in the area? Maple Lane, Sycamore Hill, or Oak Forest Drive. Some of our county’s road names are very creative and conjure up quite a mental image - names like Fish Creek Road, Rattlesnake Road, and even a Drunkard’s Pike. At last the letter from the post office arrived. We imagined this street name would give us a new air of sophistication. The name would announce to the outside world that we’re not just country bumpkins out here on a “rural route” . Like the rest of civiliation, we live on a named road. We sat down, slowly but excitedly opened the letter, and read the new name of our road in quiet disbelief: Mud Road.

All Feature Articles, artwork and photographs ©2001 by Dervish Design. Some information on the 'County Info' pages is taken directly from brochures published by Visitors Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce.