There is a lot of confusion between Idaho and Iowa, which are dissimilar in many ways (geography, agriculture, etc.), aside from being nearly 2000 miles apart. People think the capital of Idaho is Des Moines (or think the capital of Iowa is Boise), for example. A local newspaper columnist, Tim Woodward, collected several of his stories on Idaho/Iowa confusion and published a book called, Is Idaho in Iowa?.
Do any of you people in Iowa deal with the same kind of confusion as we do here in Idaho?
I grew up living 75 miles north of Rome, 15 miles northeast of Copenhagen, and 40 miles north of Mexico. All of them, of course, are cities or villages in New York State. (Copenhagen, pop. about 500, is proud of being the second largest Copenhagen in the world.)
When I went to college in Iowa, people seemed to have more problems with the Iowa/Ohio thing then with Iowa/Idaho, but there was some of that too.
I went to school at Iowa State University (in Ames Iowa). There was another college in the state, the University of Iowa (in Iowa City, Iowa).
Someone printed out t-shirts that said: Iowa State University
Ohio City, Idaho.
Another Iowa story. I had just moved to school, and I used to read the daily newspaper in the dorms. I keep seeing that someone had been arrested for a crime, and moved to Nevada. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why all of the criminals were being sent several thousand miles south and west to another state. Then I discovered that the county seat for the area I was in was Nevada, Iowa. Spelled the same, pronounced with a long A sound in the middle. I felt rather dumb when I learned that.
Working in reservations for an airline, I hear a whole LOT of confused people. Yes, there are two “St. Johns” in Canada. If you don’t know which one you want to go to, what does it matter how much it costs to get there?!? My favorite story, however, involves my parents on their first trip abroad. They were staying in London, in a flat just off the Gloucester Road tube station. They take a train to Bath for the day, and when it comes time to go “home,” they ask a train attendant for directions to the train “to Gloucester.” Gloucester, England, being in the opposite direction from Gloucester Road in London. Fortunately, they realized their error in time to get off the wrong-bound train.
Airline city codes can be fun, too. Honolulu, Hawaii is HNL, while Helena, Montana is HLN. One small slip of the fingers and Mr. Passenger is headed for a completely different type of vacation. Similar confusion with Salt Lake City, Utah (SLC) and St. Louis, Missouri. (STL) Years ago I heard the story of a teacher of mine flying from London to Los Angeles. Her suitcase was tagged to “LOS,” and ended up in Lagos, Nigeria instead of LAX, Los Angeles, California. Only British Airways, with flights to both destinations, could make this error.
This reminds me… Growing up in Massachusetts, I’d frequent a restaurant featuring “Cantonese” food. I’d think, “What’s so special about food from Canton MA?”
I’m not in Iowa any more but yes, confusion reigns. Daniel Hunter has even writen a book entitled*The Search for Iowa(&We Don’t Grow Potatoes)
I went to the University of Iowa and when I tell many people that they say, “And how did you like Ames?” I’m then forced to kill them.
In Bermuda, they have a city of Hamilton in Pembroke Parish and a Parish named Hamilton. I was on a trip there with my sister, and she said she heard that Hamilton had a great aquarium, which it does. Only the good aquarium is in Hamilton Parish, not Hamilton City, where we went, and found the Underwater Exploration Institute, which is not really a great aquarium…
When we’d drive from my town in Mississippi to visit relatives in Birmingham, we’d pass by an exit for Highway 43, where there’s a town called Guin. Two miles down the road from Guin there’s a town called Gu-Win. They are separate towns and everything. I’m sure that there’s a whole story behind the similar but separate names, but I’ve never heard it.
Oh and also: when I was going to school in Charleston, SC, I regularly got questions about West Virginia. Once there was a plane crash in Charlotte and my dad called to see if everything was ok.
I don’t get many place name confusion much now, because people generally have a good idea where Philadelphia is. Although after September 11th I got a lot of questions about the Shanksville crash. I had to explain to them that I was closer to NY than I was Shanksville – by several hours, even. I think because it’s in the Northeast people tend to forget that this is a pretty big damn state, especially when you’re talking about East-to-West length.