The origin of town names in Idaho provides occasional fodder for these postings. One of the better-known stories is about the town of Winchester. That’s because the town makes a point of telling it, with an over-sized model of a Winchester rifle hanging across one of their streets for years. An image search reveals a similar rifle gracing the front of Winchester City Hall. Alert readers will no doubt tell me if the “street” rifle has been moved, or if there are now two big guns.
In any case, the story goes that when it came to naming the town someone decided to choose the moniker by counting the number of rifles bearing brand names and go with the most popular rifle brand. If there remains a tally to tell us how close the town came to being called Remington, I’m not aware of it.
The big gun that hangs above a Winchester street is at the top. The newspaper ad is from the November 26, 1909 edition of the Camas County Chronicle announcing the irresistible lots available in the newly named (1908) town of Winchester.
RSS Feed