Highway locations, Facebook-style

[empirestate]

I'm putting this in Off-Topic because it's really more about toponymy and technology than roads...

I've noticed that with the mass adoption of the GNIS and other placename databases by social media sites and other location-related tech products, a lot of obscure placenames have re-entered the public consciousness, names that had previously been on the verge of being lost, not even shown anymore on mainstream published maps unless they were archaic USGS quads.

For example, I keep seeing Facebook posts tagged in Hannacroix, NY, which is essentially a railroad crossing in northern Greene County. Then I realized that this is the location of the New Baltimore service area on the NY Thruway, which is actually closer to Hannacroix than to the actual hamlet of New Baltimore. (It is located within the town of New Baltimore, but most technological devices don't know how to reckon minor civil divisions.) Of course, I doubt very many people, even locally, would ever tell you they were just passing through Hannacroix, but if they stop along the Thruway and send a Tweet or post to Facebook, that's how it shows up.

So are there other examples of prominent highway-related (or other) locations that give similar prominence to an otherwise obscure toponym?

[hotdogPi]

Would "Cupertino" count?

[froggie]

Since Cupertino is actually an incorporated city (assuming you're referring to California), no.

Meanwhile, what he's referring to will also depend on the state.  Some of the Mid-Atlantic states (namely Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina but also West Virginia even though they're not strictly on the coast) do post placename signs at some of these "otherwise obscure" places.  Since VDOT switched over to Clearview, I've noticed an increase in the number of placename signs located around the state.

Mapmikey and I have also documented them at the Virginia Highways Project...(look under Villages/Hamlets)

[xcellntbuy]

I'm putting this in Off-Topic because it's really more about toponymy and technology than roads...

I've noticed that with the mass adoption of the GNIS and other placename databases by social media sites and other location-related tech products, a lot of obscure placenames have re-entered the public consciousness, names that had previously been on the verge of being lost, not even shown anymore on mainstream published maps unless they were archaic USGS quads.

For example, I keep seeing Facebook posts tagged in Hannacroix, NY, which is essentially a railroad crossing in northern Greene County. Then I realized that this is the location of the New Baltimore service area on the NY Thruway, which is actually closer to Hannacroix than to the actual hamlet of New Baltimore. (It is located within the town of New Baltimore, but most technological devices don't know how to reckon minor civil divisions.) Of course, I doubt very many people, even locally, would ever tell you they were just passing through Hannacroix, but if they stop along the Thruway and send a Tweet or post to Facebook, that's how it shows up.

So are there other examples of prominent highway-related (or other) locations that give similar prominence to an otherwise obscure toponym?

Do you know about Surprise on NY 81 west of Coxsackie?

[briantroutman]

Let me make sure I'm understanding the question. In other words, you're saying:

The sharing of location data through social media has caused some nearly forgotten place names (like Hannacroix) to gain new prominence.
What other nearly forgotten place names have highways given new life?

Is that right? If so, then I think you're primarily looking at very small control cities or junction locations and perhaps some named interchanges and service areas on toll roads.

For example: Breezewood–a tiny non-entity that would be entirely unknown if not for the presence of the PA Turnpike interchange and I-70. Or Lawn, PA a tiny village that probably sees fewer visitors in a month than the Lawn Service Plaza gets in a day.

[hbelkins]

I actually see this pretty often. Friends will post something from "Lexington Manor, Ky." when I know they live in Lexington. Ditto for "Catnip," which I never heard of other than to know there's a Catnip Hill Road (KY 3xxx) that runs between US 27 and US 68 in Jessamine County, south of Lexington. And "Elsinore" which is somewhere near Frankfort.

One posts from "Arkansas," which won't show up on Google Maps. But Arkansas Creek will. It's in Floyd County, somewhere near the towns of Martin and Allen.

[empirestate]

Let me make sure I'm understanding the question. In other words, you're saying:

The sharing of location data through social media has caused some nearly forgotten place names (like Hannacroix) to gain new prominence.
What other nearly forgotten place names have highways given new life?

Is that right? If so, then I think you're primarily looking at very small control cities or junction locations and perhaps some named interchanges and service areas on toll roads.

For example: Breezewood–a tiny non-entity that would be entirely unknown if not for the presence of the PA Turnpike interchange and I-70. Or Lawn, PA a tiny village that probably sees fewer visitors in a month than the Lawn Service Plaza gets in a day.

Yeah, that sort of thing. Breezewood's a good example, as are any number of named interchanges out West, where the name is taken from some long-gone settlement with no population remaining.

It doesn't have to be roads, of course; airports are a great way of bringing up obscure location tags. "About an hour ago in Ozone Park" means somebody's probably Facebooking at JFK.

Another type of example might be someone posting photos from Mount Rushmore, say, and it showing as Keystone, SD. Now that's not a completely obscure place, but it's certainly better known than it would be without the monument.

Do you know about Surprise on NY 81 west of Coxsackie?

I certainly do. But of course, I'm familiar with most of the placenames in my state. Is Surprise showing up frequently on social media lately?

Meanwhile, what he's referring to will also depend on the state.  Some of the Mid-Atlantic states (namely Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina but also West Virginia even though they're not strictly on the coast) do post placename signs at some of these "otherwise obscure" places.  Since VDOT switched over to Clearview, I've noticed an increase in the number of placename signs located around the state.

Pennsylvania's another state that does this, for which I'm thankful. Many of the PENNDOT "village" signs are the only indication you even get that you've entered a village–simply looking around doesn't always give you any clue. :-)

[Laura]

I see a lot of tags for "Whippoorwill Trailer Park, MD" when people are shopping at the big box stores in White Marsh, MD. The trailer park used to be located about half a mile up the road, but is long gone.

[hbelkins]

The Co-Pilot GPS app for iPhone and iPad has a lot of obscure locations. You used to be able to link Co-Pilot to Facebook and then post your location, which I did often when I was traveling. I always liked to post when I was traveling through Flatwoods, WV, but you had to be well past the Flatwoods exit on I-79 before it showed you as being there. A frequent stop for me is the Sheetz at Weston, but Co-Pilot says you're at some trailer park instead of Weston.

I wanted to post that I was in New York, NY or Bronx, NY, when I passed through on I-95 a few years ago, but Co-Pilot said I was in several different locations, none of then the big-ticket cities I wanted. One I remember was "Stadium, NY."

[bulldog1979]

Trowbridge Park, Michigan, appears for posts that most people now would attribute to Marquette Township or to the city of Marquette itself. Trowbridge Park is a CDP wholly within the  township, but as a community, it really is just a few neighborhoods northeast of the Westwood Plaza Mall. The mall and the stores along US 41/M-28 in Marquette Township aren't really in Trowbridge Park, but they're closer to that than the city limits, so some apps use the CDP as the location.

[6a]

I get this when using a lot of weather apps on my tablet;




My actual address is Hilliard.  Mudsock hasn't been around in any form whatsoever since the '50s, yet it still pops up all the time, even on atlases.

[briantroutman]

I see a lot of tags for "Whippoorwill Trailer Park, MD" when people are shopping at the big box stores in White Marsh, MD. The trailer park used to be located about half a mile up the road, but is long gone.

I was going to make a comment about the potential irony of somebody posting that they're shopping shopping at some chichi boutique and the location being "Trailer Park..." . But then I looked at the store list for White Marsh and its much more downmarket than I remember. Of course it's been years since I've been there, and usually, I was just visiting the IKEA nearby.

[jeffandnicole]

It doesn't have to be roads, of course; airports are a great way of bringing up obscure location tags. "About an hour ago in Ozone Park" means somebody's probably Facebooking at JFK.

And along rivers. Frequently, those posting in the stadiums in Philly will show that they are in National Park, NJ, a small town across the river (which has nothing to do with a national park, btw).

[empirestate]

It doesn't have to be roads, of course; airports are a great way of bringing up obscure location tags. "About an hour ago in Ozone Park" means somebody's probably Facebooking at JFK.

And along rivers. Frequently, those posting in the stadiums in Philly will show that they are in National Park, NJ, a small town across the river (which has nothing to do with a national park, btw).

You know, posting from much of Manhattan tends to get you shunted across a river, too. When I would be at Radio City Music Hall, I'd continuously be tagged in Long Island City, NY (across the East River in Queens), whereas friends posting from over in Hell's Kitchen would show up as Weehawken, NJ (across the Hudson).

I'm guessing that for tagging purposes, the apps draw a circle around City Hall which they call "New York", which may appear as a default citywide, but way up in Midtown, you can just as easily be sucked into the gravitation of an adjoining circle from Long Island City or Weehawken because the app doesn't recognize the river as a barrier.

(Same thing happens when you do a local search for the nearest such-and-such...though I'm in the Bronx, I'll often get results over in New Jersey showing as closer than actually-accessible locations in Manhattan or Westchester County. As the crow flies, they may be nearer, but that river and the toll to cross it are obstacles indeed!)

[bulldog1979]

(Same thing happens when you do a local search for the nearest such-and-such...though I'm in the Bronx, I'll often get results over in New Jersey showing as closer than actually-accessible locations in Manhattan or Westchester County. As the crow flies, they may be nearer, but that river and the toll to cross it are obstacles indeed!)

I use a few social media chat/networking apps on my phone, and they use the straight-line distance as well to point out people "near" me. From my location here in the Central Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Traverse City and Thunder Bay are each about 150 miles or so. However, it's a 300-mile drive to Traverse City and 430 miles to Thunder Bay. Those Great Lakes sure do get in the way.

[cpzilliacus]

For example, I keep seeing Facebook posts tagged in Hannacroix, NY, which is essentially a railroad crossing in northern Greene County. Then I realized that this is the location of the New Baltimore service area on the NY Thruway, which is actually closer to Hannacroix than to the actual hamlet of New Baltimore. (It is located within the town of New Baltimore, but most technological devices don't know how to reckon minor civil divisions.) Of course, I doubt very many people, even locally, would ever tell you they were just passing through Hannacroix, but if they stop along the Thruway and send a Tweet or post to Facebook, that's how it shows up.

Here's an instance that is directly highway-related.  The small community of Norwood in Montgomery County, Maryland was never especially well known, even though there is a Norwood Road.  But that changed when the Contract B and Contract C segments of Md. 200 opened just before Thanksgiving 2011.

For reasons not entirely clear to me, Norwood was used as a "control city" at Md. 182, Layhill Road, Exit 10 (IMO, Sandy Spring would have been a better choice).

This even got the attention of the Washington Post: Take the ICC and exit at Norwood – where?

[formulanone]

I get a few of these on my phone (HTC Sense) but in some rural places, the location is just the State Name, or even more odd, a single-digit number (here's the weather in "2" right now).

For example: Breezewood–a tiny non-entity that would be entirely unknown if not for the presence of the PA Turnpike interchange and I-70. Or Lawn, PA a tiny village that probably sees fewer visitors in a month than the Lawn Service Plaza gets in a day.

Sounds like Fort Drum Service Plaza along the Florida's Turnpike...the plaza might have more folks inside of it during weekend lunch or dinner rush than the entire town along US 441.

[Laura]

I see a lot of tags for "Whippoorwill Trailer Park, MD" when people are shopping at the big box stores in White Marsh, MD. The trailer park used to be located about half a mile up the road, but is long gone.

I was going to make a comment about the potential irony of somebody posting that they're shopping shopping at some chichi boutique and the location being "Trailer Park..." . But then I looked at the store list for White Marsh and its much more downmarket than I remember. Of course it's been years since I've been there, and usually, I was just visiting the IKEA nearby.

It was announced a couple of days ago that a developer wants to build high end outlets adjacent to the big box stores. So give it a year or two and one can check it at the Coach outlet in the trailer park! lol

[SD Mapman]

Another type of example might be someone posting photos from Mount Rushmore, say, and it showing as Keystone, SD. Now that's not a completely obscure place, but it's certainly better known than it would be without the monument.

If Mount Rushmore was not there, Keystone would be dead.

[empirestate]

Another type of example might be someone posting photos from Mount Rushmore, say, and it showing as Keystone, SD. Now that's not a completely obscure place, but it's certainly better known than it would be without the monument.

If Mount Rushmore was not there, Keystone would be dead.

Granted. I suppose, though, the best analogy for my question would be if Keystone were dead even with Mt. Rushmore being there, yet it still showed up on everyone's Facebook posts from the monument.

[SSOWorld]

I've seen "Los Angeles" pop up in every little corner of the greater metro area on my iPhone weather app for quite some time until September (same with San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, etc) even in cities such as Santa Clarita and San Fernando.  That was because they were putting the county in as the location.  How vague.

Now they use neighborhoods (in Santa Clarita that would mean Saugus, Valencia, Canyon Country, Newhall with a portion near the central point being SC itself.) or regions.  in Sylmar (Los Angeles' northernmost district) they had listed "Kegel Canyon" as the location.  huh??

[pianocello]

I've seen "Los Angeles" pop up in every little corner of the greater metro area on my iPhone weather app for quite some time until September (same with San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, etc) even in cities such as Santa Clarita and San Fernando.  That was because they were putting the county in as the location.  How vague.

You mean they had the county name in place of the city name? That would throw off everybody in Des Moines County, IA, which is about 150 miles away from Des Moines.

[berberry]

It happens overseas, too.  I have a friend in Kathmandu, Nepal.  In most of the city, that is the name that comes up for his location.  But in the oldest area of town, the area least damaged by a major earthquake several decades ago, his location comes up as Kantipur, which is the ancient name for Kathmandu.  Today, the name Kantipur is far more closely associated with a major news agency than a geographic location.

This reminds me of a Google Maps problem about 6 years ago.  I one day noticed that the modern streets on the east side of my town, Vicksburg, had reverted to their 1960s names and configurations, except for US 80, which became Old Jackson Highway, a name I don't believe was ever really used.  I think I may have posted here about it at the time, maybe in a Google Maps errors thread?

[jbnv]

So are there other examples of prominent highway-related (or other) locations that give similar prominence to an otherwise obscure toponym?

Does the "Bay St. Louis" control city on I-10 count?

[briantroutman]

I've seen "Los Angeles" pop up in every little corner of the greater metro area...That was because they were putting the county in as the location.

It probably has something to do with the location services used by various platforms (iOS vs. Android) or different apps, but in some specific (although not so remote) locations, I've had "California"  show up as my location for Twitter or whatever. This has happened to me numerous times at SFO.