Oregon’s got Talent … end Enterprise and Hardman.

As I was circulating around the Northwest these last couple of weeks, I noticed how many “Dictionary Towns” we passed. Not “Adjective+Noun” towns like Silver Lake or New Bridge or Christmas Valley but single word names that can be found in Webster’s.

A casual study suggests that these names appear to fall into two categories – FIGURATIVE, where the town has a description that appears to define its purpose or location and ASPIRATIONAL, whose name seems to call the citizens to a higher purpose or perhaps remind them of a reward in the afterlife.

We passed by Figurative towns like Halfway, Dairy, Hayfork, Fields, Bend, and Homestead and Aspirational places like Bonanza, Plush, Talent, Enterprise, or Prospect.

I found myself imagining that people from these towns must have a lovely time introducing themselves and starting a friendly conversation just by saying they came from Antelope, Drain, Spray, Gooseberry, or Fossil. And which guy would not be delighted to start his pickup line with “Hello darling. I’m from Hardman”?