{"id":15142,"date":"2014-06-15T13:02:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15142"},"modified":"2021-11-25T09:34:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T14:34:22","slug":"raleigh-drunk-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/raleigh-drunk-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Sir Walter Raleigh Get Drunk in Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I learned a new adage recently, Betteridge’s Law of Headlines<\/a>: “Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no<\/em>“. I’d already understood that mentally of course I just didn’t realize it had a name. Good to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, Sir Walter Raleigh never indulged in intoxicants in Canada. The record shows he confined his New World explorations to places farther south. However, don’t worry, I’ll get to the tenuous connection momentarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also I didn’t think my clickbait headline really counted as such. The topic hardly involved something enticing. I just wanted an opportunity to invoke Betteridge’s Law of Headlines for myself. So thank you for indulging me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rolla, North Dakota, USA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Beautiful<\/a>
Beautiful Downtown Rolla, North Dakota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It began with Rolla, North Dakota (map<\/a>), the geolocation of a random 12MC visitor as suggested by Google Analytics. I wondered about a little dot at the farthest, most northern reach of North Dakota in the reader statistics and it turned out to be Rolla. I didn’t learn anything except that Rolla happened to be in Rolette County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally I wondered if Rolla derived its name from Rolette. Unfortunately I never found an explanation, satisfactory or otherwise. Forget about Rolla, North Dakota. I’m sure it was a fine town although it didn’t matter to the rest of the story other than leading me to wonder whether there were other Rollas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rolla, Missouri, USA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Route<\/a>
Route 66 Sign in Rolla, Missouri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then I found several other places named Rolla. The largest was probably Rolla, Missouri (map<\/a>) with about twenty thousand residents, and the seat of government for Phelps County. I had better luck determining the origin of its name, though. The City of Rolla even maintained a convenient History and Naming of Rolla, Missouri<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In 1858 Rolla was officially surveyed and laid out, and was officially named. Mr. Bishop wanted to call it Phelps Center, as his house was located in the center of the county. John Webber preferred the name Hardscrabble. George Coppedge, another original settler, and formerly of North Carolina, favored ‘Raleigh’ after his home town. The others agreed with Coppedge on the condition that it need not have ‘that silly spelling,’ but should be spelled ‘ROLLA’.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The explanation sounded a little bogus. But that’s what the city itself believed and that’s what it presented to the public so I’ll go with it. This is where the Sir Walter Raleigh part figured into the equation. Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina, the supposed namesake of the phonetically-spelled Rolla, derived from Sir Walter Raleigh<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rolla, British Columbia, Canada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n