It must have been cool living in America during the 19th century. At least if you were into naming stuff. With cities, streets and all kinds of other places popping up like wildflowers, there was always something that needed naming. Now, a lot of these places didn’t really need to exist and were solely established to either exploit resources or suppress Native Americans. Sometimes both.
Manifest destiny, y’all.
Anyway, middle America is full of places with odd names. For example, the University of Idaho – shout out to my alma matter – is located in Moscow, Idaho. I know what you’re thinking. The city is named after the Russian capital. But as Lee Corso is fond of saying, “Not so fast my friend.”
Moscow, Idaho is actually named after Moscow, Pennsylvania. How’s that possible? Well, the guy who started the regional post office got to pick the name and he happened to be from Moscow, Pennsylvania. Pretty uninspiring stuff. Towns all over America have similarly befuddling names.
Otto Von Bismarck, please give us some money
Merkelville. Trudeau Town. Gaddafi City. Imagine the uproar if someone tried to name an American city after a foreign leader today. Alex Jones and his followers would literally spontaneously combust.
Kowtowing to conspiracy theorist wasn’t a consideration in the 1870s when a city in North Dakota needed a catchy new name. It also needed an influx of money as the city’s primary income driver, the Northern Pacific Railway, wasn’t doing so hot. The town’s sizable German community had a great idea to solve both problems.
They could name the town after Otto Von Bismarck. The man known as the “Iron Chancellor” was kind of a big deal around that time after unifying Germany and winning the Franco-Prussian War. Apparently, those living in the town thought he was both rich and generous as well because they hoped he would give them some money to help out the new town sporting his name.
Bismarck was welcomed into this world on July 17, 1873. Prior to that, it had been known as Edwinton, a hopelessly unremarkable name if there ever was one. Long story short, Otto Von Bismarck had more important things to do than donate money to some small town in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And who could really blame him for not wanting to give his hard-earned money to some city Mike Pompeo couldn’t point out on a map today.
Ten years after becoming Bismarck, the Northern Pacific Railway started running. This proved to be a boon for the city which grew rapidly in the years that followed. It would soon become capital of the Dakota Territory and then North Dakota. Eventually everyone forgot that the city was named after German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and most Americans simply forgot North Dakota was actually a thing.
