Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Most Gothic Place Names in the United States--Alaska


[For background info on this new Feature, check out last Tuesday's post.]

Alaska probably has the slimmest pickings of any state in the Union, with its relative lack of civilization and its prevalence of Russian- and Eskimo-sounding appellations.  Nonetheless, I managed to find some intriguing town/city names.  There's False Pass (something wicked that way lurks), Red Devil (northern vacation spot for Satan?), Bonibrook (no secret where this town's skeletons lie), Deadhorse (the glue-factory capital of America?), Gost Creek (sounds 'aunted to me), Fink Creek (perhaps found on the outskirts of Duplicity City), Broadmoor (conjures images of an Arctic Gothic expanse), and Salt Chuck (he'll taste better that way!).  But my choice for the most Gothic place name in Alaska is...

Nightmute.  Forget the so-called Land of the Midnight Sun; this wonderfully spondaic name intimates a place where the darkness is so deep it muffles sounds of life.  The kind of place Lovecraft might have written about, where unspeakable acts abound after sunset.  The (unkind) kind of place where nocturnal sojourners are never heard from again.

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