Possum. Grape. 56. Toad Suck. Ever wonder how those Arkansas communities got their names?
Dan Boice is the author of Naming Arkansas, a book covering how places receive their monikers. He's also created a radio series of the same name that listeners of Little Rock Public Radio might be familiar with. And he's director of the library at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
He was in Fayetteville this month to deliver a presentation at the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History about his work with Naming Arkansas. While in town, he stopped by the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio One for a conversation with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis.
Boice says he's lived across the country — from Michigan to Iowa and eventually Arkansas. While on the East Coast, he quickly noticed a discrepancy between how landmarks or personal names were spelled and how they were pronounced.
Dan Boice: And that's a key for natives to recognize folks that are foreigners. I learned that very quickly and tried to make a point to myself to hear somebody else say a word before I said it. Sort of like when you're watching Jeopardy! and those bright people say a word that they've only ever read, and then Ken Jennings corrects them. They're very bright, but they just have never heard anybody say it.
And so it is with the place names. In South Carolina — and I moved later to Iowa — Iowa had some of the same kinds of unusual pronunciations. But it's always been a point to listen and hear somebody else say it before I jump in.
Getting to Arkansas was a whole 'nother level of "you ain't from around here, are you, boy?" kind of moments. When you look at a map and you see things that don't look at all like Petit Jean, or down in my neck of the woods, we have Chicot County, and we have Desha County — or is it Desha County? What's interesting is that people, natives of the county, don't agree themselves.
I've always been an avid fan — not a scholar, but a dilettante. When I was in college, I wanted to be a universal genius. But I ended up being a dilettante, knowing a little bit about lots of stuff, which is great if you're a librarian. I've always loved language and words, especially how words develop over time. Etymology — seeing the history of words, how they change, their spellings. Getting to Arkansas has put that into a whole new perspective.
I'm director of an academic library, so that kind of activity isn't really part of my day-to-day job. But over time I just kind of made it a project of mine to start compiling a list of some of these names, just for my own benefit. And that list grew. As I was compiling the pronunciations, I started noticing that some of these names have really interesting histories — like Petit Jean. Where did that come from? What's this "little John" business?
Gradually, not only was I getting the pronunciations, but I was also learning some stories about the place names, and learning that told me a little bit more about the people. My personal project grew and got bigger and bigger. Those dozens of words became hundreds, and now they're in the thousands. But it was just a personal project until I got to thinking, well, I'm finding this useful — but maybe out-of-staters or tourists, or maybe even people from one side of the state who don't know how to pronounce words on the other side, might find this of interest.
I don't think it's especially scholarly, but I thought maybe there might be some interest. And Guy Lancaster, he's the editor of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas — he was talking to me about that, and he said, "Why not a book?"
Well, there is a book. In 1986, journalist Ernie Deane published Arkansas Place Names. It's a wonderful book. He was a great journalist who traveled all over the state listening to people, picked up stories, and used those stories to compile his guide to Arkansas place names. Often the stories were true. Sometimes they were delicious fabrications that people had made up. But it's a great book. It's a little bit out of date — it's 40 years old and needed some updating. So Guy helped me find a publisher, and the book came out.
After that, I asked the fine folks at KUAR if they'd be interested in a series of radio spots on place names. They had never heard of such a thing, so I made a few samples, and it took off. Over time, I've gotten some response to both the book and the radio spots. So when John Davis, my good friend and the director of the Pryor Center, asked if I was available, I said, "You bet. I'm having so much fun with this project. I would be happy to share my enjoyment."
Jack Travis: I wanted to talk about the researching, because you're the director of a library — one might think of you as a master researcher. Do you feel like that's true?
Boice: I'm supposed to be good at research. I have a graduate degree in history, and librarians are supposed to be professional researchers. I had some really good training, both in my history courses and in library science — now called information science. I'm very comfortable going through indexes and library collections, and that has been a real bonus for me.
But even better than knowing the technical aspects of research is making connections around the state. My colleagues in libraries have been more than gracious in sharing what they know, helping me out with questions, providing resources. Some of the best digital ones — the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a fabulous resource, each article carefully vetted, written by people who know their stuff, super accurate and super reliable. Often the entries on places will give histories of the names.
The State Archives has great print resources, including the journals of the county historical societies. These have been a goldmine for me — especially the historical societies in Northwest Arkansas, Washington County, especially. But all the other counties around here, Benton and Madison, have great print resources that give histories of towns and often include the stories of how those towns got their names.
Being able to look at some of those from 40, 50, 60 years ago — even though they're often mimeographed and not always easy to read — there's wonderful resource material there, written by folks whose maybe their grandparents helped found the town or the city. Those generations aren't here anymore, but those print resources are still maintained at the archives and in county historical agencies. Going through them has been a real labor of love.
Travis: You moved from West Michigan to South Carolina to Iowa to Arkansas.
Boice: With a stop in DeKalb, Illinois, for a year.
Travis: Did learning about the place names — and then learning the history of how those places got those names — did it help you feel more at home?
Boice: I'd have to say yes, because when a town is named, it can be named for a variety of reasons. It can be named by the town's founder. So Travis might call his town Travistown or something. But often there's something about the name that tells us something about the people who were settling there — what their hopes were, what their dreams were, what the difficulties were. Learning about the history of a town is just like learning the history of a person. It helps get to know that person and understand a little bit more about where they're coming from.
I'd like to think I'm an Arkansan. When I was in South Carolina and my oldest son was born, I asked one of my friends — a wonderful old man, Doug — "Is the fact that Danny was born here, does that make him a South Carolinian?" And he says, "When a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make 'em biscuits."
So no, I'll always be an outlander. But I feel much more connected to the people and the places around here.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
