week of 8/28/02
 
 
 

Place name origins evoke reader responses
By George Ellison

A recent column about mountain topography and place names prompted a number of positive e-mail communications that indicate considerable interest in the topic. This supported my earlier assertion that there are those besides myself who enjoy thinking about “the lay of the land.” After all, as I also previously noted, there’s no other place in the world that surpasses the actual topography of the southern mountains — and there’s no place where the people of a region have utilized a more delightful language to describe their homeland.

In the previous column I was only able to work my way from “A” (Advalorem Branch) to “H” (Hanging Dog) before running out of space. Here, then, are additional “I-Y” examples. I don’t include “X” because there don’t seem to be any candidates.

Once again, I’ve restricted myself to the seven-county Smokies region west of Buncombe County. Unless otherwise noted, my general sources are William S. Powell’s The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Place Names (UNC Press, 1968) and Allen R. Coggins’ Place Names of the Smokies (Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, 1999). I have sometimes added additional commentary.

° INADU CREEK, KNOB, or MOUNTAIN are situated in the Great Smoky Mountain Mountains National Park with Inadu being the Cherokee word for snake, hence indicating a snaky place.

° INDIAN CREEK is the name for 15 streams in North Carolina, with two of them being in Swain County.

° IRON DUFF is a community in Haywood County. There has been considerable conjecture about this place name, but it probably resulted as federal error when Aaron MacDuff, the designation it previously went by because one of its earliest settlers was so-named, was misspelled as Iron Duff. Seemingly, none of the community’s residents cared enough to request a corrected spelling. At any rate, whatever its origin, Iron Duff remains an excellent name.

° JUNEY WHANK BRANCH and FALLS in the GSMNP near Bryson City are possibly named for Junaluska (Juney) Whank, who is said to be buried nearby. He was named for Junaluska, the famous Cherokee chief.

° KILLPECKER RIDGE is a spur of Jenkins Ridge in Swain County within the GSMNP. The name refers to a rookie on a logging crew. A killpecker was an individual who might almost die of exhaustion before he learned to pace himself.

° There are 45 LAUREL BRANCHES or CREEKS in North Carolina, with four of them being in Swain County.

° LICK LOG or LICKLOG CREEK, BRANCH, or GAP in Clay, Jackson, Haywood, and Swain counties are so-named because the local settlers felled trees and cut notches in the logs to hold salt for their cattle.

° LICKSKILLET is a community in Macon County so-named because hunters leaving their cooking utensils in the area returned to find that they had been licked clean by their dogs or the wild critters.

° There are 32 LITTLE CREEKS in North Carolina.

° There are 76 LONG BRANCHES or CREEKS in North Carolina with four of the former in Jackson County.

° MAGGOT RIDGE, SPRING, BRANCH, and GAP in Swain County within the GSMNP are so-named for a white worm found in cold mountain springs or branches that resemble maggots (fly larvae) but may be a species of small grayish flatworms.

° There are 83 MILL CREEKS or BRANCHES in North Carolina.

° MOLLIES BUTT, RIDGE, or SPRING are in the GSMNP and are said to be named after Mollie, a Cherokee woman who died there while searching for her lover.

° NEEDMORE is a former community in Swain County situated alongside the Little Tennessee River so-named because its residents were constantly complaining that they “needed more of this and that,” which they probably did.

° OCONALUFTEE RIVER is a corruption of a Cherokee word meaning something like “all towns along the river.”

° PICKENS NOSE is a huge rock outcrop in Macon County named for General Pickens by his men, who thought the outcrop resembled their leader’s nose.

° PLOTT BALSAM KNOB is situated in Haywood County on the northeast end of the PLOTT BALSAMS, a ridge that extends northeast from the Tuckaseigee River in Jackson County into Haywood County. It is traversed along the county line by the Blue Ridge Parkway at WATTERROCK KNOB. Named for the Plott family who settled the area and bred the famous Plott hounds.

° POISON COVE TOP situated at the head of POISON COVE CREEK in Haywood County is possibly named for white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum), also known as milksick plant because it contains a toxic alcohol that tainted cow’s milk and caused significant infant mortality well into the early 20th century.

° QUILLAREE BRANCH in the GSMNP is named for the Cherokee and early settler’s term for the wood thrush.

° QUALLA is a community in Jackson County. The name is derived from the Cherokee word “kwalli” (old woman) because an elderly Cherokee woman, Polly, lived there. Also called Quallatown.The Qualla Reservation is that portion of Eastern Band of Cherokee lands in Western North Carolina situated at present day Cherokee, N.C. They own four other tracts of land as well: Katuwah and the 3,200-Acre Tract in Swain County; Tomotla in Cherokee County; and Snowbird in Graham County.

° ROCKHOUSE KNOB in southern Macon County near the Georgia line is named for an extensive rock overhang where some Cherokees hid out from the U.S. Army during the removal events of 1838. This area receives the highest rainfall in eastern North America, sometimes exceeding 140 inches per year.

° SKEENAH COMMUNITY, CREEK and GAP are located in southern Macon County. The name is reputed to be an Indian word meaning “the abode of Satan.”

° TOW STRING CREEK and COMMUNITY in Swain County within the GSMNP are probably named after yarn made of broken flax or hemp fibers by a woman living in the area.

° The UNICOI MOUNTAINS are situated along the Tennessee and North Carolina line south of the GSMNP. The name is a corruption of the Cherokee word for “white.”

° VESTS is a community in western Cherokee County. The exact origin of the place name is not known to this writer.

° WARNE is a commmunity in southern Clay County named for an English family who mined gold there.

° YELLOWHAMMER BRANCH and GAP in Graham County are so-named after the woodpecker commonly known as the yellow-shafted flicker

° “Z” is the end.

George Ellison is a writer who lives in Bryson City. He wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C. 28713, or at ellisongeorge@cs.com