Kermit and Notrees Top List of Weirdest Town Names in Texas
Right here in our own backyard, the town of Kermit tops a list of towns in Texas with the weirdest names. When you say "Kermit the town" you have to hear it like Kermit the Frog says his name, but Kermit comes in on the list of weirdest names in Texas along with Notrees.
The list was compiled by Culture Trip and even though me having lived in Texas all my life, I have not heard of a few towns on the list but they are there so let me list them here in my order of most weird to least weird.
Jot 'Em Down
Home of only 10 people it is actually just the intersection of FM 1532 and FM 904 in the middle of Delta County in between Dallas and Paris, TX. In the 1930s a store was built in the area and was named Jot 'Em Down Gin Corporation for the fictional store in the radio show "Lum and Abner" so the name stuck.
Cut and Shoot
Just 45 minutes north of Houston, Cut and Shoot reportedly was named after a young boy that was frightened during a fight that almost erupted between the townspeople. He reportedly said "I’m scared! I’m going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!” So that is what inspired the town's name.
Blessing
Blessing was the name given to the town when the original suggestion "Thank God" was rejected by the U.S. Postal Service in 1903. This town is located close to the coast about 50 miles east of Victoria.
White Settlement
If you have been around Ft. Worth then you have probably been through White Settlement. The town was named because during fights with Native Americans in the late 1800s, the white settlers settled in the area and called it "the white settlement." The town adopted the name soon after and currently, it is home to 17,000 people on the west side of Ft. Worth.
Gun Barrel City
Sounds like a place where a huge shootout happened in the old west, but not so much. The name was derived from the motto of the town, "We Shoot Straight With You," so thus the name Gun Barrel City. This town is located about 40 miles southeast of Dallas.
Kermit
These last two to me are not all that weird, but that is probably because I have heard their names all my life. To other people not from here, they might ask why you would name a town after a frog on The Muppets and Sesame Street, which is not how the town got its name. Kermit was named for Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, but Kermit does have a Kermit the Frog Blvd. and a water tower painted Kermit the Frog green.
Notrees
Notrees on the other hand was named for obvious reasons. This is West Texas, after all, we are not known for having a lot of trees. The town was a product of the Shell Oil Company which built a plant in the area and housing for the workers at the plant became Notrees. The abandoned high school building is pictured above. Currently, the town has about 23 people in total.
There are your oddly named towns in Texas for you to explore at your leisure.
CHECK IT OUT: 20 Things Us Texans Have To Explain To Out-Of-Town'ers