Recently I ran onto an article by staff writer Ginger Ruark in a 1930s issue of the Springfield Press about colorful names of Ozarks towns, especially small towns. Some of the more interesting ones she cited were Split Log, Blue Eye, Long Lane, Hogeye (i.e. Charity), Slap Out (Grove Springs), Oronogo, and Pin Hook (i.e. Pleasant Hope).
The naming of Split Log (also spelled Splitlog), located just south of the Newton County line in McDonald County, had nothing to do with cutting wood, as one might guess from the name itself. Rather it was named after an Indian Chief who started the town and whose name was Splitlog.
Blue Eye on the Arkansas-Missouri border got its name when the first postmaster, who had several brown-eyed daughters but only one blue-eyed daughter, was tasked with giving the place a name. As the little community's first settlers were debating what the name should be, the postmaster's blue-eyed daughter came up to him, and, looking her in the eyes, the man announced that they should call the place Blue Eye.
Long Lane in Dallas County got its name, appropriately enough, because the main street was a long, tree-shaded lane.
Long Lane's neighbor, Charity, got its nickname Hog Eye, in an unusual way. In the 1880s, citizens of the area were anxiously anticipating completion of a railroad through the county. (It was never completed.) A man named Bennett established a general store on one side of the main street and traded his goods for railroad ties, which he planned to sell to railroad contractors. Shortly afterward, a newcomer whose name was also Bennett opened a store on the opposite side of the street, and in order to distinguish the two men, the townspeople took to calling one of them Hog Eye and the other one Goat Eye. Hog Eye Bennett was one of the main organizers of the early community picnics that were held regularly at Charity, and the picnic grounds were dubbed Hog Eye after Hog Eye Bennett. The festival itself came to be known as the Hog Eye Picnic, and even the town of Charity was (and still is) sometimes called Hog Eye.
Grovespring (or Grove Springs, as Ms. Ruark spelled it) was once known as Slap Out. The name supposedly derived from the fact that there were few stores within easy reach of the settlement, and residents were in the habit of calling on each other when they needed a cup of flour or some other essential. Often the reply they got was, "Sorry, I'm slap out myself."
There are several variant stories on how Oronogo in Jasper County got its name. The one Ms. Ruark cited is one I've never heard before, and I don't think it's accurate. She said that, when early miners looking for ore in the area were told they'd never find any, they replied "It's ore or no go," and, so, when they did strike ore, they named the place Oronogo. This is just a tall tale, I think, because Oronogo was a town named Minersville quite a few years before it got the name Oronogo. One of the most prevalent explanations for how the town got its name is that one of the early storekeepers often took ore in exchange for his merchandise but when someone asked him whether he'd take other goods like crops or furs, he supposedly answered, "No, it's ore or no go." This was about the time Minersville was told by the post office to come up with a different name because there was already another town in Missouri by that name, and someone suggested Oronogo, a contracted version of "Ore or no go."
Ms. Ruark didn't know what the "obscure reason" was that Pleasant Hope in Polk County got its nickname Pin Hook. This is something I've written about on this blog before. The short answer is that there was actually a place called Pin Hook that predated Pleasant Hope in the same immediate vicinity. Pin Hook disappeared, and Pleasant Hope sprang up about the time of the Civil War or shortly before, and a lot people started referring to Pleasant Hope as Pin Hook, even though that was not its official name. I'm not positive this is exactly how it happened, because I'm writing this just from memory, but it's something along those lines.
Other colorful place names mentioned by Ms. Ruark include Peculiar, Dog Town, Red Top, Red Hot, Windyville, Lick Skillet, Bird Song, Pumpkin Center, Possum Trot, Chicken Bustle, Christopher Crossroads, and Gouge Eye (an early name for Galloway, which is now part of southeast Springfield).
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