{"id":1795,"date":"2009-07-30T17:03:48","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T22:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2022-03-06T17:10:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T22:10:47","slug":"place-name-palindromes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/place-name-palindromes\/","title":{"rendered":"Place Name Palindromes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A palindrome is a word or phrase that is identical whether read forward or backward. Simple examples would include the words MOM and DAD. I love palindromes and wondered if I could combine this concept with some odd geography. I soon discovered that truly every esoteric subject has a home on Wikipedia when I found a list of palindromic place names<\/a>. Seriously. Someone else not only pondered this exact topic but compiled a list. Suddenly I feel so unoriginal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess I can consider it “fair use” if I steal<\/del> borrow this idea assuming I add value. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adaven, Nevada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So I started with the list. Wikipedia claims the champion is Adaven, Nevada (map<\/a>) at twelve characters, but they note it doesn\u2019t really count because someone simply made it up by reversing the name of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adaven.<\/a>
Adaven, Nevada from above<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d say a better reason for striking it from the list is that it\u2019s a ghost town<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. A small community formed in the 1870\u2019s and the population remained at about twenty-five inhabitants for the next fifty years. It only got a name when the government opened a post office and they had to call it something<\/em>. There\u2019s not much left of Adaven today other than ruins. The post office left decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aksarben, Nebraska<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Adaven, Nevada? Please, what a joke. If we\u2019re dealing with made up names that don\u2019t count anyway we might as well throw Aksarben, Nebraska onto the ring. That\u2019s right, sixteen characters blowing Adaven right out of the water. I wonder why Wikipedia didn’t include it on the list? I suppose I could edit the Wikipedia page, but, well\u2026 that would require effort, and um… I guess it just feels better to gripe about its inadequacies than actually fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to spend a lot of time in Nebraska. It’s not a particularly interesting story so let’s skip that for now. From my time there though, I remember that Omaha had a well-known horse racing track and arena called Aksarben. They simply spelled Nebraska backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was located right around in here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n