Showerthought: Mapping old family photos led me to a town that isn't on any map

I was sorting through my grandma's albums and found a picture labeled with a place I can't locate. It's making me wonder if it's a ghost town or something else.

3 comments

3 Comments

evannelson1mo ago

Could just be a local nickname for a place. Names change over time or get spelled wrong in old records.

faith6011mo ago

Old maps from my county show 'Miller's Creek' but everyone called it 'Muddy Run' by the 1900s. Local nicknames stick around in stories and letters, not always official records. So @evannelson is right, those informal names can completely replace the original over time.

the_thea1mo ago

Trying to map my own family history once led me to a gas station that closed in 1985. So I get how place names can just vanish or change. Like @faith601 said, those local nicknames stick in stories but not on official maps. Over time, if everyone starts using a different name, the old one might as well be gone. It's not always ghost towns, sometimes it's just the slow drift of what people call a place. Makes you wonder how many spots are hiding in plain sight under a name nobody uses anymore.