PROVO -- Ever driven through Tooele and wondered where that name, and its pronunciation (too-ILL-uh), came from? Maybe you just wondered what you were doing in Tooele.
What about Hurricane (pronounced "HER-uh-cun")? Or American Fork ("a-mer-i-cun FARK")?Those are a few of Utah's quirkier city names, and there are others. You'll also find unique names in the Beehive State attached to mountain ranges (Oquirrh), rivers (Sevier), lakes (Great Salt) and tourist attractions (Flaming Gorge). Not to mention Utah's only locally owned, daily newspaper (Deseret).
What's in a name? Plenty, if you're Brigham Young University professor Richard Neitzel Holzapfel.
"How place names came to be is fascinating," said Holzapfel, who has written "A History of Utah County" as well as a Utah history textbook being used by seventh-graders around the state.
"They preserve our history. They tell us a lot about the culture of the time. They tell us about people's perspectives."
Soon after the pioneers made their celebrated entry into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, they began settling the surrounding area. They also began naming everything in sight.
Of course, Mormon settlers weren't the first ones to do that.
The preceding inhabitants, such as the Utes, Paiutes and Shoshones, had their own names for various locations. And, as far back as 1776, Spanish explorers passing through provided their own monikers.
Though it was the pioneers and their descendants who bestowed most of today's place names, the lingering influence of American Indians and other cultures remains. Holzapfel has researched the origin of the names, and he is amused at the mix.
"It's fun that we have Spanish, Mormon, non-Mormon and Native American names represented," he said. "You can learn a lot about Utah's history by looking at the names alone."
City names have been derived from the surrounding geography and topography (Cedar City, Riverton, Salt Lake City, Springville); names of fur trappers (Ogden, Provo) and prominent local figures (Brigham City); biblical and Book of Mormon references (Bountiful, Lehi, Manti, Moab and Nephi); U.S. presidents (Roosevelt); and Indian leaders and terms (Kanab, Kanosh, Panguitch and Tabiona).
Some names surfaced accidentally, some logically. There is a story behind them all. Here's a glance at name origins of several Utah communities, according to Holzapfel and "The Utah History Encyclopedia," edited by Allan Kent Powell.
AMERICAN FORK/SPANISH FORK -- Both cities' names are derived from nearby rivers, known as forks, flowing into Utah Lake. The names recognize people from two different cultures. American Fork was settled by American-Mormon pioneers and Spanish Fork was named for a pair of Spanish-Catholic explorers, Fathers Dominguez and Escalante, who entered the Utah Valley in 1776 along the Spanish Fork River.
HEBER CITY -- Most of the early settlers here were natives of England, where LDS Church leader Heber C. Kimball had been very successful as a missionary. The town was named in his honor.
HURRICANE -- LDS leaders, including Erastus Snow, were traveling to St. George along the upper Virgin River when they encountered a heavy windstorm, blowing off the top of Snow's buggy. Snow reportedly said it was like a hurricane, noting that would be a fitting name for the area.
LINDON -- Once called Stringtown, this Utah County town was known for a string of homes built along the road. Mail for Pleasant Grove and Stringtown residents was dropped off by Pony Express under a linden tree. During the post office application process, a name was needed for the area. Because the linden tree was a local landmark, Linden was chosen. A spelling error at the post office headquarters in Washington, D.C., gave them Lindon with an "o."
MONA -- Some believe it is an Indian word for "beautiful," as well as a contraction of the Italian word "Madonna."
OREM -- The city was named for Walter Orem, the owner of a railroad that ran between Salt Lake City and Provo, apparently in an attempt to attract investments from the wealthy Salt Lake resident. He never lived in Orem.
PARK CITY -- The area was once known as Upper Parley, after LDS Church leader Parley P. Pratt, since it was near Parleys Park, located at the head of Pratt's toll road in Parleys Canyon. Parleys Park eventually became Park City.
ROY -- The town went through several unofficial names before settling on a permanent one. An early death had claimed the child of a schoolteacher, the Rev. David Peebles, and he convinced sympathetic citizens to choose his son's name, Roy, as the town's name.
SANDY -- This one was inspired by the soil found by farmers along State Street.
SANTAQUIN -- Ute Indian Chief Guffich forged a friendship with early white settlers to the region. Guffich secretly warned them about a plot among young braves, including his own son, Santaquin, to attack the white people. The settlers departed, and when the braves arrived to find the place deserted, Guffich told them the whites were honorable people and that the Great Spirit had alerted them of the attack. From then on, there was peace between the two groups. When Guffich was chosen as the name for the community, he declined and requested that it be named instead for his son.
SYRACUSE -- A salt manufacturer in the area, William Galbraith, had the word "Syracuse" on his salt bags. He borrowed the name from a salt company he was familiar with that was based in Syracuse, N.Y.
STOCKTON -- Believe it or not, this Tooele County town was established long before Jazz star John Stockton arrived in Utah. The mining town had residents who were volunteer soldiers from California who came to Utah during the Civil War. It was named after Stockton, Calif.
TOOELE -- Early pioneers were known to Indians as "Tooelians," though others believe the name comes from the Spanish word for an indigenous plant in the area. Some think it refers to the rushes and reeds in the tules, the swampy areas of the valley. It was spelled "Tuilla" by one map surveyor in 1849. If that spelling had prevailed, perhaps visitors wouldn't have such a tough time pronouncing it.