Roach Ranch (Rd.)---Strange Road Names

[Sunspace]

Old Upper Middle Road in Oakville, ON.

Peterborough, ON, has a Television Road. It goes to, yes, the television station.

[picunurse]

@Una Persson

Sni-A-Bar Road in Kansas City.

I remember that. It was on the Sni-A-Bar ranch. When the ranch was sold off the road stayed.

My favorite is in Sequim Wa, where my in-laws live. It’s Kitchen Dick Road.

Street ride:
Ride through gently rolling farmlands to the cliffs above the Strait of Juan de Fuca with spectacular views of Dungeness Spit, New Dungeness Lighthouse to the north and the Olympic Mountain range to the south. Pedal past the Dungeness Recreation Area on gentle country roads and watch for eagles, deer and elk. This is their home! Pedal down Kitchen-Dick Road and turn back down Old Olympic Highway to return to Sequim.

(my bold)
There’s also Chicken Coop road, but that’s kind of a let down after the other one.

[wonder9]

Oh, and here’s another one that baffles me. I passed an East South Rd. the other day. Not “Southeast Rd.” but East South Rd. How can a South Rd. have an East section? Do I just not get it?

[TheLoadedDog]

@don't ask

When I lived in Pennant Hills I used to drive past Lois Lane.

There’s also a Frankie Lane just off Parramatta Rd, Burwood.

[Polycarp]

Pink Schoolhouse Road, Town of Orleans, Jefferson County, New York.

Number Four Road, in Lewis and Herkimer Counties in the Western Adirondacks. Not a really odd name in and of itself, but it’s so called because it goes to the hunting-camp community of Number Four.

Tenten Road in southern Raleigh and Cary, NC. It is, of course, secondary state highway #1010.

Buffaloe Road, which runs east from Raleigh. Though it appears Dan Quayle had a hand in naming it, it’s actually named after a family who spelled their surname Buffaloe.

Sumerduck Road runs south from U.S. 15 a few miles east of Fredericksburg VA.

Peggys Crotch Road is located in Cayuga County NY, and, understandably, goes to a crossroads named Peggys Crotch.

[Mindfield]

@wonder9

Oh, and here’s another one that baffles me. I passed an East South Rd. the other day. Not “Southeast Rd.” but East South Rd. How can a South Rd. have an East section? Do I just not get it?

You’ve obviously never met Orillia, ON.

West St. N.
North St. W.
West St. S.
North St. E.

There’s also an East St. and a South St. just to add to the confusion.

[Johnny_L.A]

@wonder9

Oh, and here’s another one that baffles me. I passed an East South Rd. the other day. Not “Southeast Rd.” but East South Rd. How can a South Rd. have an East section? Do I just not get it?

Where I grew up as a teen, streets are laid out in a grid with major streets a mile apart. North-south streets were numbered: 10th St W, 20th St W, 30th St W, etc. There is also 10th St E, 20th St E, 30th St E, etc. The eastern streats are separated from the western streets by Division St.

East-west streets are also a mile apart and have names like Avenue J, Avenue K and Avenue L. West of Division they are W Ave J, W Ave K, etc. and east of Division they are E Ave [Letter]. So if you wanted to go to an address like 2240 W Ave K-12 you knew that it was between Ave K and Ave L (closer to L), and about a quarter of the way from 20th St W and 30th St W or about halfway between 22nd St W and 23rd St W.

Anyway. Imagine a city with that sort of layout that has an east-west running street called South St. It would be like one of the lettered streets I mentioned, so it would have an east side and a west side. 123 East South Street, for example.

[Mindfield]

Heh… how about Kitchen Dick Rd. in Sequim, WA? (Bonus: It intersects with Woodcock Rd.)

[Johnny_L.A]

@Mindfield

Heh… how about Kitchen Dick Rd. in Sequim, WA? (Bonus: It intersects with Woodcock Rd.)

Yeah, what about it?

[joyfool]

Pssst. Mindfield, look at post #22. I think you was scooped.
Dang it Johnny!!

[Contrapuntal]

Another NC curiosity. The Millis Road School is located on Millis School Road.

[Sunspace]

@Mindfield

You’ve obviously never met Orillia, ON.

West St. N.
North St. W.
West St. S.
North St. E.

There’s also an East St. and a South St. just to add to the confusion.

I love how North Street is south of South Street… by one block.

Don’t forget Trotter-Oitment Rd just off Highway 620 between Apsley and Coe Hill, ON. Yes, that’s “Oitment”. My theory is that someone couldn’t spell back in the old days.

[SnakesCatLady]

I always liked “Upper Pig Pen Road” in Newnan, GA. There did not seem to be a corresponding “Lower Pig Pen Road” as far as I could ever find.

One end of the street I live on connects to “Sue Mack Drive”. Many many people on that drive get mail addressed to “Sumac Drive”. When giving directions to my house I’ve learned to spell it.

[OtakuLoki]

Well, as long as we’re talking about directional street names, my favorite intersection here in Rochester is the corner of East and East. That’s East Avenue and East Boulevard.

[Rick]

In Bakersfield we have 7th Standard Road.
Further north near Red Bluff there is Hooker Creek Road. The exit sign for that also informs you that you need to take that exit for Balls Ferry. I guess you take Hooker Creek Road to get to Balls Ferry.

[Contrapuntal]

@Rick

In Bakersfield we have 7th Standard Road.
Further north near Red Bluff there is Hooker Creek Road. The exit sign for that also informs you that you need to take that exit for Balls Ferry. I guess you take Hooker Creek Road to get to Balls Ferry.

Where do the straight people go? (Balls Fairy)

[Brynda]

I ran across an address recently on Bugscuffle Road. Gotta love the rural South.

[Una_Persson]

@picunurse

I remember that. It was on the Sni-A-Bar ranch. When the ranch was sold off the road stayed.

Actually, there’s more to it that just a ranch. I don’t have a good cite, but I think the ones in this fellow’s blog tell the tale about confusion over the root of the name.

From: http://www.rbgilbert.com/log/ronslog030.html

Just below the town of Wellington in Lafayette County [Missouri], is Wolf’s Island, which is made by an arm of the river circling and through the bottom on the south side of the river. This arm is called in the neighborhood the “Slough”, but it has none of the characteristics of a slough. It is thirty or forty yards wide and the water flows through it from one end to the other swift and deep. This is the “Sni”, so named by the French voyageurs in their early explorations of the river. There is another one in Illinois in the Mississippi bottom opposite Hannibal, Missouri, about thirty miles long, and it is known by no other name than the “Sni”. The upper end of the “Sni” in question is peculiarly situated so as to catch the drift wood. In earlier times during the spring freshets great quantities of drift wood were brought down the Missouri River and thrown into the “Sni”, effectually stopping all egress or ingress to or from it by water. I have seen piles of logs therein hundreds of yards long and twenty feet high, making an effectual bar to all navigation. This bar remained the year around, and so the voyageurs found it and named it the “Barred Sni”, or “Sni-a-bar”. Into this “Sni” two creeks empty, one much larger than the other. These are called Big Sni-a-bar Creek and Little Sni-a-bar Creek. Big Sni-a-bar Creek has its source in the southwest corner of Lafayette and the southeast corner of Jackson Counties. The adjoining townships in these counties have both been named Sni-a-bar Township for the stream which heads therein.

…and then the other possible explanation

It looks like a possible Native American word but it is a corruption of “Chenal Ebert” [Herbert’s Channel], or “Schuyté Eber” [Herbert’s Cut], both named after a trader or hunter who took a wrong turn into a bay instead of going straight up the Missouri River. It went through many languages and corruptions including German and French before the final name stuck. That’s what the 1881 history says. Young’s History, on the other hand, contends that “a-bar” comes from the fact that a Frenchman named A. Barrie was camping at the mouth of the Big Sniabar when Lewis and Clark came through. It further contends that “Sny” came from the French language and that it means “slough,” given for the fact that the tributary was backed up and muddy. The editor of that book conflictingly states that the" a-bar" part comes from the fact that the Sni was “barred” by driftwood. Today there is the Sniabar Creek, the Little Sniabar Creek and Sniabar Township.

[Spoons]

Avenue Road in Toronto always struck me as a little odd. A bit like calling a thoroughfare “Road Street” or “Street Drive” or somesuch.

However, according to Wikipedia, it’s a common name elsewhere. I still like the legend that the Wikipedia link mentions: Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe was surveying the old town of York and came to a spot on Bloor Street and pointed north. He said (in an English accent), “Let’s 'av a new road!”

[Sunspace]

“Sni” is more properly spelt snye. It’s a side channel to a river, and comes from the Acadian French chennail, “channel”.