{"id":15801,"date":"2015-03-11T19:14:16","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T00:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15801"},"modified":"2022-08-08T17:55:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T22:55:28","slug":"shortest-town-state-combo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/shortest-town-state-combo\/","title":{"rendered":"Shortest Town + State Combo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wondered what town and state had the fewest letters in its collective name. For example, my hometown of Arlington, Virginia had 17 letters. That wasn’t very short. Why would anyone care? I don’t know. Maybe someone had a job where they had to write down their town and state repeatedly to the point where they’d want to move to a place to minimize their task. Maybe it was a Bart Simpson chalkboard<\/a> thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But oh wise 12MC — I’m sure the audience interjects even as we speak — it wouldn’t matter whether people lived in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations or any other state for that matter, they would still shorten it to a two-letter postal abbreviation. Simply pick the shortest town name and be done with it. Forget about the state. That wouldn’t be a challenge and we don’t take the easy path on the circle. We need to do this the hard way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

States with four-letter names seemed to be the optimal starting point: Utah, Iowa and Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Utah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Hill<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were a couple of towns in Utah with three letters. One was Roy<\/a>; so Roy + Utah had 7 letters. That was pretty good. The Utah History Encyclopedia<\/a> explained Roy’s short name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-one years after Roy’s first settlement, the town’s few residents met to start the wheels of progress turning by obtaining a post office. The first requirement was the selection of a permanent name for the town. Roy had been called Central City, Sandridge, the Basin, and Lakeview. One member of the group, Reverend David Peebles, a schoolteacher, recently had lost a child to death, a young boy named Roy. Peebles exerted pressure to have the town named after his son, and the local citizens were sympathetic to his plea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Roy may have started small although it now has nearly 40,000 residents (map<\/a>). It abutted Hill Air Force Base on its southeaster corner right next to the Hill Aerospace Museum<\/a> which I visited previously. That signified two dimensions for me personally, (1) I’ve been to Roy although I didn’t realize it at the time because one must pass through Roy to get to the museum, and (2) I can illustrate this entry with one of my own photographs instead of borrowing one from some unsuspecting Flickr user. Roy might be in the background of that photo somewhere. Actually I think Roy might be in the opposite direction, behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other 7-letter combo was Loa, Utah (map<\/a>). This town appeared previously as one of my bloggy finds<\/a>. It demonstrated that I should never recommend other websites because it automatically curses them into never publishing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Utah History Encyclopedia<\/a> also mentioned Loa. The name “… was suggested by Franklin W. Young, who had once resided in the Hawaiian Islands and had been impressed with Mauna Loa, Hawaii’s second highest mountain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iowa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"N.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were many different 7-letter combos in Iowa. Ira, Iva and Ute were amongst them. I focused on Ely, Iowa (map<\/a>). It had the largest population of the grouping so it seemed to deserve more attention. The The History of Linn County, Iowa<\/a> (1878) had a simple explanation for the short name. “Ely was laid out June 5, 1872 by T.M. Johnson, Surveyor, on parts of Sections 30 and 31, Township 82, north Range 6, under the proprietorship of John F. Ely.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too bad Ely wasn’t founded by Chuck D<\/a> because then it would have scored even better. The awesome 5-letter combination of D, Iowa would have been unstoppable. Imagine how Iowa might may evolved if that had happened. We may never be able to work out the time\/space issues necessary to transport Chuck D back to the 1870’s so he could start a town although that would be amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those vintage buildings shown in the photograph still exist by the way (Street View<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ohio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ohio had its share of short-name towns including Aid, Fly and Ray. I was prepared to talk about Ray because it was significant enough to have its own post office (45672<\/a>). That wasn’t necessary because I found something even better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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