{"id":14436,"date":"2013-12-15T10:40:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T15:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=14436"},"modified":"2021-12-27T09:12:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T14:12:48","slug":"ampersand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/ampersand\/","title":{"rendered":"Ampersand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the sources I consulted for Follow the Letter<\/a> referenced a town with an alphabetical street grid with one extra street. They named the street Ampersand instead of beginning a new sequence, although technically Ampersand did begin with an A as long as it wasn’t explicitly rendered as “&” on the street sign. I’ll never know because I couldn’t find it. The story may have been apocryphal. [UPDATE<\/strong>: it may be Little Rock, Arkansas (map<\/a>)<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, during the search I did uncover several ampersand geographic features in the far northern reaches of New York State within the Adirondack Mountains (map<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"New<\/a>
Ampersand Mountain from Middle Saranac Lake, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These included Ampersand Lake, Ampersand Mountain (a very popular hiking<\/a> destination), Ampersand Bay, Ampersand Brook, Little Ampersand Pond, and several roads. The town of Saranac Lake included an Ampersand Avenue<\/a>, as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole amalgam sprang from Ampersand Brook which was alleged to resemble “&”<\/a>. I examined the maps and concluded that the name involved a bit of poetic license. It didn’t twist nearly as much as many other mountain streams I’ve observed. Even so I appreciated a creative description and wondered if places elsewhere took the form of punctuation marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well of course they did<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some examples included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comma<\/h3>\n\n\n\n