# What is the westernmost place in the United States named for something British? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213 "2010-09-09T19:33:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/21 "2010-09-11T09:43:02Z")
A somewhat related question; what’s the northernmost place in the United States that has a distinctly Spanish name? Anything north of Colorado? ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/22 "2010-09-11T09:44:55Z")
Montana! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/23 "2010-09-11T10:56:24Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > Montana! Montana could be Latin. Hence it’s not “distinctly Spanish”; it’s ambiguously Spanish/Latin. I can’t think of any Spanish names in the Northwest except for the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/24 "2010-09-11T13:18:10Z")
To be honest, until I looked at wikipedia, the various books I’ve seen it mentioned in only said that the name Montana was from the Spanish. [For instance](http://www.slideshare.net/grieffel/spanish-explorers) (4/5th of the way down the page) - “Montana : from montaña , mountain. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio suggested using the Spanish word in honor of the territory’s mountainous western part.” Anyway, there are plenty of Spanish names a bit further north on the Canadian coast, like [Zeballos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeballos,_British_Columbia), near the northern end of Vancouver Island… There’s a list of BC placenames with maritime derivations [here,]([http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc\_placenames](http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames) [URL="[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc\_placenames.htm](http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canbc/bc_placenames.htm)) but unfortunately I have no idea just where most of them are! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/25 "2010-09-11T13:36:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > A somewhat related question; what’s the northernmost place in the United States that has a distinctly Spanish name? Anything north of Colorado? [Valdez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdez,_Alaska), and probably stuff north of there as well: just like California, Spain did penetrate up there a bit even though it didn’t stick. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/26 "2010-09-11T13:59:56Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > There’s also a monument to Cook in Hawaii, near the place he died. Here’s a thread (started by yours truly) about its sovereignty from a couple years ago: [James Cook memorial in Hawaii](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=464731) Captain Cook is a “census-designated place” on the Big Island, pop. 3206. Ford Island is further west, in the middle of Pearl Harbor. There are several military installations with English-origin names in the islands, too. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/27 "2010-09-11T17:41:46Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > [For instance](http://www.slideshare.net/grieffel/spanish-explorers) (4/5th of the way down the page) - “Montana : from montaña , mountain. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio suggested using the Spanish word in honor of the territory’s mountainous western part.” A bit of an aside here, but I love this story. Ashley essentially made up the name Montana for the territory that eventually became Idaho because he liked the ring of it. When other interests snubbed the name “Montana” and went with “Idaho” instead, he used his influence to move the eastern border from the continental divide to the crest of the Bitterroot mountains, effectively stealing most of western Montana from Idaho and leaving Idaho with its unwieldy panhandle (ever try driving from Coeur d’Alene to Boise?) . He also basically made up the name Wyoming too, which was the name of a valley in eastern Pennsylvania that had no particular connection to the territory. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213/28 "2010-09-11T20:09:12Z")
> [@Flying\_Saucer](#): > > > [@GreasyJack](#): > > > > By the time the midwest and points further west were being settled, there were a lot of immigrants from other parts of Europe who made up a large portion of those settlers. > > _That’s_ what I’m looking for. > > The early settlers named things in the colonies after their British homeland. Surely, either in the run-up to the Revolutionary War, the actual war itself, or its aftermath, this process stopped. > > It didn’t stop in Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, or Washington, but it did stop during the great western expansion as the settlers headed for, and crossed, the Mississippi. > > My question is, where, geographically, did it stop? The reason it didn’t stop is because British explorers had already named things coming from the Pacific side many years earlier. As the Captain Cook and George Vancouver examples indicate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-westernmost-place-in-the-united-states-named-for-something-british/553213.md?page=1)