The Border

"Power … resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state”

 

The East

Vershire - All over, again:  The dying and reviving village
Delmar - Peace across the vista line
Mardela Springs - The town that made rusty water famous
Marydel - Politics, pumps, and a lady’s honor
Sylmar - The line between states, between states of mind, at the edge of language
Pen Mar - Summer ghosts and sacred edges
Nypenn - The Traveler in his labyrinth

 

The South

Virgilina - The apotheosis of the Tucks
Alaga - Wiregrass and the Chattahoochee Bridge
Florala - General Jackson on the Shore of Gondwanaland
Alaflora - Heart pine heartland
Flomaton - All quiet on the southern front
Missala, Alabama - The solace of leaves
Missala, Mississippi - The railroad, the roadhouse, and the nudist camp:  Heavy and dark and alive
Texla - The new South in the arms of the old

 

Appalachia

Penowa - Commies in the tavern, and edge names from Hell to Breakfast
Kentenia - The robber barons of Kingdom Come
Kenvir - Map lines, picket lines, color lines
Kensee - Fog and weeds reclaim the hollow
Tennelina - Life and death on Shut-in Creek
Carotenn - Gandy dancing to the lost cove
Tennga - Sing, goddess, the wrath of Junaluska

 

Shores

Carova Beach - By sand and by sound
Vir-Mar Beach - Treasure the Chesapeake
Michiana and Michiana Shores - What time is it in Indiana?
Dakomin - In which the Lindquist brothers run a stern-wheeler on the Continental Divide

 

Big Rivers

Kenova - Hard-working rivers, railroad to freedom
North Kenova - The wandering border that the ice made
Mondak - The three rivers, the gunslingers, and John Philip Sousa
Illmo - What the river gave
Tennemo - Bear wrestling on shaky ground

 

Tall Grass

Illiana, Edgar County - Copperheads and Red Raven
Illiana, Vermilion County - On the train with Abe Lincoln
Illiana Heights - Bull-Bonus and the Grand Marais
Mokan - Fear and loathing by the swans’ way

 

The Delta

Arkla and Laark - Crossing soggy ground
Armorel - Mr. Wilson’s towns, and spliced eponyms from Saybrook to Saspamco
Arkmo - To the Frisco station
Moark, Missouri - Between a Peach Orchard and a Frisbee
Moark, Arkansas - The first high ground across the line

 

South By Southwest

Latex - Goodnight, Huddie
Arkana - Jukeboxes, alchemy, rototillers, and other tragedies
Texarkana - Two hearts beat in ragged time
Artex - Information and its discontents
Arkinda - On the Choctaw lines
Arkoma - Loansharks, tattoos, and Miss Laura’s

 

Panhandles

Texola - Oasis on the Mother Road
Texico - From the Peavine to Peggy Sue
Texhoma - A tale of two panhandles
Mexhoma - Cimarron roots and the edge of empire
Oklarado - Within a blooming grove

 

Great Plains

Colokan and Kanco - The Star of Western Kansas
Kanorado - Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Dakoming - Dodging federal regulations ’mid disporting flamingos
Monota - The Red Menace, with lutefisk
Alsask - The Great Lone Land, the burning elevator

 

The Rockies

Colmex - The Denver & Rio Grande on the River of Lost Souls
Wyocolo - The stock swindle, woman suffrage, and getting high in the Medicine Bows
Monida - Where the rivers change direction
Idmon - Thunder coming up over the land

 

Basins & Ranges

Wyuta - Across the Wasatch with the Saints, the UP, and the Lincoln Highway
Utida - The Snake and the Bear
Ucolo and Urado - Safflowers and Indians on the Great Sage Plain
Uvada, Utah - Battles at the end of the line, murders on the margins
Uvada, Nevada - The loneliest road, the pleasant valley, the Pony Express
Idavada - Between sheets in the Empty Quarter
Calvada - Truckee Canyon, Range of Light
Calneva - The desert rats of Nataqua
Calor
, Orcal, and Calor - Down and out in Jefferson

 

Deserts

Calvada Springs - Fewer inconveniences than Hell
Calada - Lucy Gray meets Saint Audrey
Cal-Nev-Ari - And the flyer home from the sky
Calzona - In the country of the greasewood

 

La Frontera

Naco - I sing the boundary electric
Calexico - Flow
Mexicali - “The edge will reveal the center.  The edge will reveal ourselves.”

 

Edge Effects: The Border-Name Places, Written By: Robert D. Temple
Copyright © 2008 by Robert D. Temple . All Rights Reserved
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