Whither Po Biddy?

posted by Zach Patton

Wooster and Sharp Top and Dewy Rose and Hemp.

Santa's forgotten reindeer? Lip gloss flavors?

Nope, they're towns in Georgia that were unceremoniously wiped off the map earlier this year, when the Georgia Transportation Department redrew its map of the state.

These towns, most of which were very small, were removed from the map, along with communities such as Poetry Tulip, Due West, Po Biddy Crossroads, Cloudland, and Roosterville.

Transportation officials said the goal was to make the maps clearer and easier to read. So they did away with the towns that were either too tiny or had names that took up too much space on the map. In all, they deleted 488 communities from the map.

Unsurprisingly, this has elicited criticsm from the affected towns:

"This gets back to respect for rural areas," said Dennis Holt, who is leading a community group that wants to restore the good name of western Georgia's Hickory Level, population 1,000, which was founded in 1828 and recently put up five new welcome signs. "I'm not sure we're going to accomplish anything, but I would have felt bad about myself if I didn't say something about it."

Hickory Level, we hardly knew ye!

Comments

[ivan swift]

Taking names off a map for no good reason -- probably for bureaucratic makework, if the truth be known, should be condemned. what's next -- western Kentucky's Monkey's Eyebrow and Bandana? Eastern Kentucky's Kingdom Come? the closest crossroads to where I live in Alabama is called Black Cat. once it had no name, but many years ago a county road work crew was trying to coordinate with another road crew on where to meet. One crew member recalled that both crews had seen a black cat at the intersection of Reedy Section and Wall Triana Roads the previous day. "let's meet where we saw that black cat yesterday," he said. Out of that the intersection got named Black Cat.

[Wes F in Hapeville]

My hometown of Pinhook, IN doesn't make Rand McNally's Road Atlas, but it does make the official Indiana map (warning - link is a large .pdf. I grew up in the one in Lawrence County; there's another one up in LaPorte County).

It's probably safe on the official map, though, as the current Lieutenant Governor of Indiana grew up in that area and is a member of the Pinhook Church of Christ (the church where my family has attended for 140+ years, no less).

WF