Everyone loves a good town name. The more ridiculous, the better. A real estate website compiled a lengthy list of the most unusual town names in America, including 18 in Minnesota.
The folks at the Estately Blog had a good selection to choose from for the Land of 10,000 Lakes. We have Embarrass, Winner and Climax. But can you guess which town was crowned as the royal winner of weirdness?
Little Canada.
Do you want to know what else? Little Canadians are not happy about it.
Map shows America's weirdest town names by state — see which Minnesota cities made the list
We have Embarrass, Winner and Climax. But can you guess which Minnesota town was crowned as the royal winner of weirdness?
Here's the full list of towns in Minnesota with "weird" names and a few fun "facts" about a few of them.
1. Ball Club: This unincorporated community of 342 people located between Cass Lake and Grand Rapids received its name from a type of Native American La Crosse stick.
2. Blue Earth: Blue Earth gets its name from the Blue Earth River that surrounds the town. Also awesome? Blue Earth is home to the Jolly Green Giant statue.
3. Clam Falls: Not in Minnesota. Clam Falls is in Wisconsin. We thinks there were probably so many oddly-named communities in Wisconsin, the creators of this list had to toss a few west.
4. Clappers: Clappers has not been included in past Census counts, so we have no idea where the name came from.
5. Climax: The butt of many jokes, Climax was named after a chewing tobacco company. Fun coincidence: Climax is located near Fertile.
6. Embarrass: With an average annual temperature of 34.5 degrees, Embarrass is notable as the coldest place in Minnesota. Its name was derived from the French word embarrasser, based on its meaning of "to hinder with obstacles or difficulties." It was given this name by the French fur traders who were some of the first Europeans to visit the area.
7. Good Thunder: Good Thunder is located south of Mankato, and is named for a Winnebago chief.
8. Little Canada: The first white settlers in the region were French Canadians.
9. Luck: Again, not in Minnesota, but we'll take it, because Luck seems like a cool place. Luck was so named because it was a stopover for travelers on their way to Taylors Falls. They felt lucky to have reached the halfway point by sunset. It's also the Yo-Yo capital of the world because it was once home to the Duncan Toys Company Yo-Yo factory headquarters. Another fun fact: Regina Spektor, worked at a butterfly farm in Luck.
10. Motley: After much research, no known connection to Motley Crue.
11. Mound: Mound is the birthplace of the Tonka truck and according to Melvin Gimmestad's "Historical Backgrounds of Mound, Minnesota," "Mound derived its name from the Indian mounds once found within the present day city limits. They were not built by the Dakota Indians, but were made by prehistoric Indians".
12. Ottertail: A sand bar where the Otter Tail River enters Otter Tail Lake is shaped like an otter's tail.
13. Nimrod: Home to the Nimrod Gnats town ball team, and only 69 citizens, this north-central Minnesota town was named after Noah's great grandson from the Book of Genesis, who was not an idiot.
14. Pillager: The city was named after the Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians.
15. Sleepy Eye: Sleepy Eye took its name from Sleepy Eye Lake, and that was named after Chief Sleepy Eye who was known as a compassionate person with droopy eyelids.
16. Staples: Named after a family of early settlers.
17. Twig: Was branch taken?
18. Winner: Filed in the ironic state archives, this abandoned townsite is near Roseau.
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