In southern Indiana east of Evansville, a town of 2,000 people exudes the holiday spirit year-round. They gave it the curious name “Santa Claus” (map).
What the Clause?
Various sources including Wikipedia claim that the town was originally called Santa Fe when it was founded in 1856. However residents had to change the name when the post office was established. Another town in Indiana claimed Santa Fe first so this one had to select something different.
At least residents had a sense of humor since what else could possibly explain the choice of Santa Claus? If the story ended there it wouldn’t be all that remarkable. There are unusually named towns all over the landscape. But it gets much stranger.
Residents really embraced the name. Today it’s a tourist attraction for all things Santa Claus including Santa’s Candy Castle, a Santa Claus Museum, the Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Frosty’s Fun Center, Christmas Lake Golf Course. I imagine it’s a lot of fun during the holiday season. But wouldn’t it get a little old in the steaming heat of summer?
Even the Street Names!
To compound the strangeness, check out some of the street names around Christmas Lake just southwest of town: Christmas Circle; Ornament Lane; Sled Run; Holly Drive; Elf Lane, Evergreen Plaza, Silver Bell Terrace, Snow Ball Drive, Mistletoe Drive, Jolly Lane, streets named after many of Santa’s reindeer (Comet, Blitzen, Dancer, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Cupid), and on and on.
North of town the street names take another bizarre twist. They abandon Christmas and branch out to different times of the year. The town includes a whole series of streets named after holidays, pseudo-holidays and football bowl games. Imagine living on Pro Super Bowl Street or Lincoln Birthday Street, or even more paradoxically, East Robert E. Lee Day Street.
They do throw an occasional bone to residents who may not have achieved the same level of quirkiness. People still have the option of a very Americana sounding addresses such as Walnut Drive if something like Sugar Bowl Street or Inauguration Day Street happens to be a little too extreme for their tastes.
Leave a Reply