According to From Red Hot to Monkey's Eyebrow — Unusual Kentucky Place Names you'll find Paradise in Kentucky, but it's only one of the many unusual place names in the Commonwealth.
Meeting these names for the first time, visitors and residents alike assume that some clever or funny stories lie behind them. So they ask, how did Elkhorn Creek get its name? Were the roads to Red River really Hell each way? Did bugs really tussle in Monroe County? Why was everyone whooping for Larry?
To be hospitable and helpful, Kentuckians have come up with convincing — if not always truthful — answers to these and other questions about how places got their names. Some of these stories were clearly not intended to be believed, though a few of them have been anyway.
From Red Hot to Monkey's Eyebrow presents some of the classic accounts of Kentucky's oddest place names.
Complete with map, index, and humorous drawings by Linda Boileau, this handy guide is a delight. Robert Rennick, a trained folklorist and amateur social historian, is also the author of Kentucky Place Names.
Paperback, 96 pages.
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