After a bout of random association this morning, I was thinking about cities named after rocks and minerals. It turns out that Little Rock, Arkansas is larger than Boulder, Colorado. I imagine that Granite City, Illinois is populated by tough, hard-eyed people. And, while I know that carbon is neither a rock nor a mineral, coal is. So Glen Carbon, Illinois gets an honorable mention.
What are some other cities named after our geological friends?
Quartzsite, Arizona
Gold Canyon, Arizona
Pebble Beach, CA
Rhyolite, a volcanic rock high in silicon, is the name of a ghost town in Nevada founded in 1904 after gold was struck nearby.
More generally speaking, we have Rockford and Rock Island, IL (what is it about Illinois? - they’ve also got Carbondale and Galena); Rockville, MD; Round Rock, TX; Slippery Rock, PA; Rockland, ME; and Rockland County, NY.
Redgranite, WI
Telluride, Colorado
Huh. I did not know that. Cool.
Copper Cliff and Nickel Centre have both become part of Greater Sudbury. Sudbury has two electoral districts – Sudbury, and Nickel Belt. Sudbury’s institutions of higher learning include the Laurentian University and Cambrian College (Cambrian has mining-related programs, but, as far as I know, not a single Welsh-language course).
Meanwhile, in Quebec, there’s the town of Asbestos, as well as the more appealing Val-d’Or (French for “Valley of Gold”). Saskatchewan has Uranium City, which has some common history with Chalk River, Ontario. Speaking of Ontario, How about Smooth Rock Falls, Petrolia, and Cobalt?
Flint, Michigan
Rock, MI. Can’t get more basic than that.
Salt Lake City, UT
Silicon Valley, CA
Detroit Rock City, MI
How about counties? In Minnesota we have Rock County and Blue Earth County.
Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
Mineral City, OH (and a ghost town in WA), Mineral Wells, TX (a one-time spa town); Mineral Springs, NC; Mineralville, PA (and CA.)
Carbon Hill, Alabama (nearly destroyed by a tornado a few years ago)
Coaling, Alabama
Stoney Point, AL
Rocky Hollow, AL
Natural Bridge, AL (named after, you guessed it, a natural bridge)
Pebble, AL
Silver Run, AL
Limestone County, AL
Marble, Basalt, Granite, Gypsum, Leadville, Coaldale, Coal Creek, Coalmont, Placerville and Carbondale CO.
On a macro scale: Earth, Texas (link to Google Maps).
Glen Rock, NJ
Great Falls, MT
Big Sandy, MT
Grass Range, MT
Sandy Springs, GA
. . . and then there’s that whole Glacier National Park thing. . .
Tripler
Hell, there’s a bunch of 'em out West.
Rockport, TX
Galena, IL
Red Rocks, CO
Silverton, CO