Unusual Place Names

Jean C. Gordon here to talk about unusual place names. When we travel, I like to note unusual place names. That’s how I came up with the Paradox Lake setting for my Love Inspired books, Small-Town Sweethearts (January 2012) and Small-Town Dad (January 2013). In the first book, Emily Hazard faces a paradox when she comes home to Paradox Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York to stay with her teenage niece while Emily’s brother is deployed to Afghanistan with his Reserve unit.  

Paradox Lake gets its name from a unique occurrence which happens every spring. Melting snow in the eastern Adirondack Mountains flows into the Schroon (not Loon) River. Paradox Lake's outlet also flows into the Schroon River, but due to the sudden increase in water, the outflow is forced back, causing it to flow in reverse.  In addition to the Schroon River, there’s also a Schroon Lake. From what I could find, the origin of that name is unknown. But it’s stuck in my mind because, on one vacation in the Adirondacks, our then-small daughter kept looking for “schroons” after hearing me mention the name of the lake to my husband.

The Village of Ticonderoga is also near Paradox Lake. Home of Fort Ticonderoga, which played a role in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, Ticonderoga comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways" (Lake Champlain and Lake George, joined by the La Chute River).

Closer to home, we have Hannicroix, Coxsackie, and Catskill. Hannicroix takes its name from the nearby Hannicroix Creek. According to an old story, early Dutch settlers saw a rooster floating down the creek on a block of ice, so the creek became known as the Hannekraai, meaning "cock-crowing" creek.

From what I could find, Coxsackie (pronounced coke-sah-key) is from a native word mak-kachs-hack-ing, which Dutch settlers wrote as Koxhackung. It is generally translated as "Hoot-owl place” or "place of many owls.” As for Catskill (the village and mountain range), the name has nothing to do with killing cats or, most likely. cats at all. The actual origin is murky, but “kill” is Dutch for creek. We have numerous “kills” in the area. A 1656 map of New Netherland located the 'Landt van Kats Kill' at the mouth of the Kats Kill. 

Finally, we come to my township, Coeymans. I’m going to randomly give away a copy of Small-Town Sweethearts to one person who posts how they think my town is pronounced — I had it totally wrong when we moved here — and one person who posts an unusual place name. I’ll stop back tomorrow with the pronunciation and the winners.

With the help of God and the love of Drew Stacey, a down-sized Wall Street analyst turned church camp manager, NYC assistant art director and former town misfit Emily, ne Jinx, Hazard finds the thing she wants most in the place she least wants to be — Paradox Lake. Through having to be responsible for her niece, interaction with the town's people, and falling in love with Drew, she learns the meaning of Christian fellowship. 

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Celebrating Memorial Day

Let's celebrate our veterans and the men and women currently serving in the armed forces.

We have our flag out. But my family and I (Jean C. Gordon) aren't up to much else. While I'm having lunch with a writer friend, my husband is going to drop in at our son's for a swim in the pool at his condo complex. Then, maybe our son-in-law (the free-range-pig farmer) might have some pulled pork for us for sandwiches for supper.

Nothing like the way my dad, a World War II vet, celebrated. He did Memorial Day in a big way. He'd put out the flag, and we'd walk down to Main Street to watch the parade. Then, he'd have a big barbecue with our relatives from both sides of the family. More than 30 people. They'd come from the city -- Niagara Falls/Buffalo -- to Attica for a day in "the country."

Dad would grill hamburgers and hot dogs and German sausages and make Beef on Wick. People would bring all kinds of salads and deserts. I really miss the potato salads. It's my favorite and neither my husband nor the kids like it. Mom would make jello with fruit salad, and someone would always bring jello with vegetables in it, which none of us "kids" would eat.

We'd take our cousins across the street to the creek and show them how to lift flat rocks and find crayfish. Sometimes, if it was hot enough, we'd walk further down the creek to the fishing hole and "accidentally" fall in. One year when I was in my early teens, a significantly older cousin (the banker) had traded in his well-used VW beetle for a Porsche. All of us older cousins wanted a ride in it. What could be cooler than riding through town in a Porsche with an attractive older guy? Hey, no one needed to know he was my cousin. I can't remember that I ever got that ride.

As the song goes, "Those were the days, my friend." So, what are you doing today?

Summoned as temporary guardian for her teenage niece, while her brother is deployed to the Middle East with his Reserve unit, Emily Hazard returns to Paradox Lake. On one condition—she won't let herself think about staying. Emily always felt like a misfit in her tiny hometown.

But she doesn't count on falling for handsome Drew Stacey, a former Wall Streeter who's getting the town church camp ready.

Now available as an eBook

Small-Town Sweethearts Interview

How exciting to have Emily Hazard the heroine from Small-Town Sweethearts by Jean C. Gordon a January release from Love Inspired Romance.

1. Emily, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

You might find this interesting. Everyone here in Hazardtown seems to. I’m somewhat of a jinx. Although since I left my Adirondack Mountains hometown on Paradox Lake, NY, for college and my job in New York City, I’ve been able to control this interesting thing.

2. What do you do for fun?

Between trying to handle my work as an assistant art director for an agency in New York City from here on Paradox Lake and supervising my 17-year-old niece while her father is deployed in Afghanistan, I don’t have a lot of time for fun. I do enjoy the little family tradition my niece and I have of going out for soft ice cream to celebrate our various triumphs large and small. And I love the annual Essex County Fair, although I haven’t been there since high school.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?

Although I love them dearly, I put off visiting my family or, more specifically, returning to Paradox Lake because of unpleasant memories I have of being a misfit there. But since my brother asked me to be my niece’s guardian while he’s out of country so she can finish her senior year of high school with her friends at Schroon Lake Central — my alma mater — I’m back here for the next few months.

4. What are you afraid of most in life?

Being pulled into the everybody-knows-everybody’s-business, small-town atmosphere of Paradox Lake and Hazardtown Community Church while I’m here with my niece and turning back into the Jinx Hazard I was growing up. That person who never fit in anywhere. A lot of people here still even call me Jinx. I’ve worked hard to develop a distanced professional persona. In fact, one of the reasons I like my church in New York is that the people in the congregation let each other worship privately. None of that touchy feely, we’re all in this together stuff that makes you feel guilty if you don’t volunteer for everything like Mom and Dad. Not that they don’t really seem to enjoy it. It’s just not for me.

5. What do you want out of life?

I thought what I wanted out of life was to become art director at a large New York City ad agency. My plan was that, once I’d achieved that, I could think about other things like marriage and kids. Now that Drew Stacey has arrived on my scene, I’m not so sure what I want, except it’s not to settle down permanently on Paradox Lake.

6. What is the most important thing to you?

I know it shouldn’t matter, but I’d like to fit in and to have people like me for myself, not for what I can do for them, like my boss and everyone else at the agency where I work do. And, don’t let this out, but I’d like to find a man who will love me just as I am, even if I slip into Jinx mode.

7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?

I like coffee table books, the ones that have lots of photography. I get good ideas for work from them. But, that’s not really reading. If I had more time, I’d indulge myself in historical novels, with or without romance.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

To be more graceful and athletic.

9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I don’t have a pet. My apartment in New York is too small, and I work too many hours to give a pet the attention it should have.

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I’d go back to the early nineteenth century when my ancestors were settling the hamlet of Hazardtown, here on Paradox Lake. It would be fun to see where I came from, if I maybe take after one of them since I’m so different from the rest of my family. Of course, being early settlers and loggers, they were probably all rugged outdoor types like my family.