There’s a suburb of L.A. called Lake Los Angeles, where the developers did plan originally for there to be an artificial lake. But it proved too difficult or costly to maintain, so you have this place located in what’s almost the Mojave Desert.
In this “system”, the Pacific Coast states are often called the Far West.
There was actually a plan some years back to re-name the entire PA State System of Higher Education to “Pennsylvania Commonwealth University at (location)” which would have reduced the confusion somewhat.
Robin, graduate of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (which is actually in Shippensburg)
Wake Forest University is (no longer) in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Hence “Northwestern University”, which is in Chicago.
There’s Cornell College, which is not in Ithaca.
My favorite is Jersey Shore…PA, well over four hours from the nearest ocean or major lake.
Pleasant Grove, Utah. It’s got trees, but it’s really kind of a shithole town. 
Not almost. It IS in the Mojave Desert. I was born in Mojave, CA, and raised in Rosamond, not all that far from Lake LA. Now that I live in Colorado, I’ve learned that Lake City is the county seat of Hindale County, and the county seat of Lake County is Leadville.
Who knew?
In Hawaii is a place called “Enchanted Lake” by its developers. It’s historic name is Ka’elepulu which means black and wet. However, for years it was simply known as a black, *wet ****and ****stinky *swamp/garbage dump. It still seems like it still is whenever there is a particularly hard rainstorm.
The University of Dallas isn’t in Dallas at all. It’s in Irving. Right next to Texas Stadium, the home of the “Dallas” Cowboys.
“North Beach” in San Francisco isn’t a beach; it’s not particularly near the water (though it once was).
Boston has a bunch of these on a smaller scale. The one that offends my sensibilities and drives vistors crazy is that the two major interstates heading north and south are I-95 and I-93. So far so good but it you take I-95 South from Boston, you will soon find that I-95 South and I-93 North are the same road at one stretch. It is disturbing when you are just trying to follow directions.
I went to school in Mount Pleasant. We used to joke that it was neither mountainous nor especially pleasant. (Yes, yes - ‘mount’ refers to it’s early incarnation as a stage-stop, nothing to do with terrain. We knew that. But then the joke wouldn’t scan, y’know?)
Oh! And another thing - New York, New Jersey, they are getting a bit on in years. When do we start referring to them as simply York or Jersey?
I believe my mother had that exact problem trying to navigate Boston. That was the trip that made her decide it was time to get bifocals for reading maps while driving.
If you are trying to leave downtown Pittsburgh via the airport, which is north of the city, you must take I279 South. 279 South goes north. If you take 279 North, you will still be north of the city, but nowhere near the airport.
There’s a plan in the works to rename the whole corridor.
But it’s sort of close to the Susquehanna. Doesn’t that count for something?
Robin
There are two small, unincorporated towns in Northeast Missouri near each other. One of them is Ely, the other is West Ely. This link will show that someone didn’t have much sense of direction when the towns were named.
Which reminds me – Chester and West Chester, PA are about 20 miles apart, and in different counties. At least West Chester is west of Chester, though.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It drives me nuts that the media actually went along with this crap.
Not for long. They’ll be playing in Arlington when the new stadium is ready.
It took me a while to figure out that while St. Louis is in Missouri, the city of East St. Louis* – adjacent and east as advertised – is actually in another state.
*This remains the only location in my countrywide travels where I have ever been propositioned by a prostitute. And I live in LA!