Interesting signage and toponymy
in Lancaster County, PA

Whenever I go out of town, my wife hides little notes in my suitcase. In the note below, she was referring to my hobby - taking pictures of the endpoints of US highways - which, in her opinion, wastes enough of my spare time as it is. So she probably wouldn't have even let me go on this trip to Pennsylvania if she knew I'd spend a morning driving around, taking photos the likes of those that follow...

Let's begin with the tame ones: I drove to the town below because I'm from Denver, Colorado. When I read this sign, I was surprised to learn of a town "way back east" (from my perspective) that was named for my western city. At least that's what this sign says; however the website for Denver Borough tells the story a little differently. (Thanks to D. Witman, a native of Denver PA, for that information.)

(I also have a page with photos from other towns called "Denver".) I think these signs (which are posted on the highway approaches to the various towns) are really cool. Not only do they give the origin of the town name, but notice also (at the top) how they indicate the mileage to the next town. Pleasantly quaint. Apparently historic, too - I found a 1942 photograph that shows one:

(That's a photo by Marjory Collins, preserved in the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress.) I thought the town below had a curious name:

As I was looking over maps of the Harrisburg/Lancaster area, looking for interesting places to visit, I was astounded how many times I'd read a town name... and then do a double-take! I'd say there's an unusually high concentration of innuendoes within a 10- or 15-mile radius of Lancaster. And I thought it was particularly ironic that all this suggestive toponymy is found in the heart of Amish country! Unintentional of course, but funny nonetheless. To wit:

At first blush, I'd expect the town above to have an exceptionally notorious red-light district.

Above: perhaps a clothing-optional town?

I'm not as adolescent-minded as you might think: even I wouldn't have done a double-take for Mount Joy, had not William Least Heat Moon mentioned it in his book, River Horse. Below are some close-ups:

Above: hmm... is that a noun or a verb?

Regretfully, I didn't see an explanatory sign for Blue Ball. Originally my guess was that the town was named by some luckless resident who perhaps had too many false expectations upon his hopeful visits to the surrounding towns aforementioned... However, in 2003 "Annette" wrote to inform me that there is indeed a sign for the town on route 322: apparently this name also comes from a sign hanging outside a tavern, in this case a blue ball.

To be fair, I should mention that Lancaster County also has a Goodville and a Churchtown...

If I had more time, I might've also collected photos from the towns of Ninepoints and - from counties further west - Seven Valleys, Seven Stars, and Two Taverns. And maybe - besides Blue Ball - White Horse, Red Lion, Greenmount, Goldsboro, and Brownstown, too.

This is all delightful stuff for a guy who comes from a much less densely-populated state, where there's lots of uninhabited land between the towns - most of which have less colorful names than those in Pennsylvania. But, if you're interested, you can click here to view my page about Colorado placenames.