The Cape Horn mystery, and other road questions
Way back in March, I asked if anyone knew how the Cape Horn area got its name.
New commenter Dennis Keener made me feel like I’m not alone! He writes: “You asked a question that has gone unanswered to me for years. Both my grandparents lived in or near the area and didn’t know the answer. There were only a handful of homes in the area when I was a child (late 40s). Now its a bustling area with two shopping centers, four banks, a factory for steel fabrication, two gas stations, restaurants, two major grocery stores. Most in just the last 20 years. It would solve a great question for me if someone knew the answer. I’m thinking someone who built a house there had a connection to a cape along the eastern seaboard and in fondness named it after the spot.”
That’s not a bad guess; I wish I knew it if was right! Jim McClure offers another guess on his York Town Square blog; you can check that idea out as well.
Unfortunately, we don’t have anything more concrete to go on! So, we posted a discussion on our Exchange message boards, and while we took a slightly unusual turn away from Cape Horn in particular, we did start a really crazy discussion on the craziness that is York County’s roads – specificially, how they change names all the darn time.
Jim has written before about how the Susquehanna Trail has about a dozen different names as it winds through York County. The readers on the Exchange noted the same about several other routes – including Memory Lane/Haines Road/Camp Betty Washington Road.
The short reason why? Every municipality gets to name its local roads. But I’m thinking about Roosevelt Avenue/Bull Road. It’s always had those names, but “where” it switches from one to the other has definitely changed in my lifetime, so that’s not a municipal thing. Any ideas on this or the original Cape Horn mystery? Please share!
