USAGE: (CHAT) Place names (was) USAGE: Knock and knock-knock

>Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
>> DeKalb, being famous for its hybrid corn, is a large farming
>> town.>
        I was a textbook salesman back in the 60s, and actually visited NIU;
it had only been going a few years.  It was, quite literally, in the middle
of a cornfield.  But I'm sure DeKalb, like so many places, has changed a bit
since then.

John Cowan wrote:
>I note that you also have a campus in Oregon, Illinois: that must make
>for confusions.  (For non-Usonians, Oregon is also one of the U.S. states.)
        Interesting:  is there an Oregon anything back east?  I always
though Oregon state derived from a local native word.  But now it appears
it, and the Illiinois town, might be named for yet a third place???   In
that same book-salesman career, my first practice run was IIRC to Scranton
PA, in the Wyoming River valley.  Later, in Michigan, I was surprised to
discover Wyoming, MI (a suburb of Grand Rapids).  Of course much of this
general area was settled by New Englanders/New Yorkers via the Erie Canal
route.   Currently I live in Saugatuck MI, named after a Connecticut river.
And an old part of Ann Arbor MI (_that's_ a unique name!) had Broadway, Wall
St. and Maiden Lane (but very few banks).

>Similarly, there is the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, with its
>confusing university, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  Not to
>be confused with Indiana University (in various cities in Indiana).
        Have they changed the name? or is memory playing tricks again?  I
thought it was even more confusing:  California State College at Indiana PA.