Towns

Every year when we are in Maine, I wonder about the town names.  So many of which are of foreign cities and countries and not those from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, or derived from the Bible or Greek history.   And it's not the entire state.  Almost all are concentrated in a limited area, inland from the coast, not in the top half of the state, and not beyond a line about 10 miles east of Augusta/Waterville in the central part of the state.

In addition to the towns shown in the photo above (from the Maine Public Radio story linked below), we have:

Moscow

Belgrade

Palermo

Rome

Vienna

Lisbon

Warsaw

Etna

Dresden

Many states have a few towns with these names, but not all of them, and not in such a concentrated area.  It turns out there are a variety of reasons for the names (most of which are from the first half of the 19th century) as described in this MPR story. 

Just as these names peter out a few miles east of the Augusta/Waterville line, we run into a trifecta of unusual names, or at least unusual is such proximity - north to south along twenty miles of road are Unity (named in 1804), Freedom (1813), and Liberty (1827)!  It's a nice drive.  Try it if you are in the area.