The most controversial names in California

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-most-controversial-names-in-California-6376137.php

Amid the national uproar over the Confederate battle flag, which finally came down in South Carolina last week, some people are wondering if it's time to retire some of California's more controversial names....

N—/NEGRO CREEK — why it should be changed: Obviously racist. In the Gold Rush town of Rough and Ready in 2011, local resident Gail Smith bought property along a creek. When she checked the county assessors' map, she discovered its name was still listed as something ordered eliminated from all U.S. place maps almost five decades ago: "N— Creek." According to news reports, when Nevada County supervisors learned about the name, they changed it to "Negro Creek." The L.A. Times reported that "to Smith, her creek's name had gone 'from 1860s hate to 1960s racism.'"...

HIGHWAY 99 — why change the name: Most Californians probably don't know it, but Highway 99's official name is the Jefferson Davis Highway, after the Confederate president. It runs almost the length of the state north and south. Jefferson Davis is not deserving of any monument or tribute in California....

PICKANINNY BUTTES —why it should be changed: The racist name supposedly derives from a circa-1900 African-American settlement near the 2,999-foot peak in San Bernardino County. Not far away is Negro Butte, which also should be changed. Chuck Bell, former San Bernardino County Planning Commissioner and a longtime Lucerne Valley resident, wrote in an email to the Lucerne Valley Leader that Pickaninny Buttes "hasn’t been so designated on any map since the 50s." But it's still on Google Maps.

[antiquie]

1. 65 years in California and I had never heard of J.D. Highway.

Future
Caltrans' long-range plans recommend that SR 99 be upgraded to Interstate Highway standards between its southern end and Stockton (or Sacramento), which would require upgrading some substandard sections and eliminating the last at-grade intersections. Caltrans indicates the route would be designated as either I-7 or I-9, in accordance with the Interstate Highway System's numbering standards (being just east of and parallel to I-5).[28]

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Oh I have, but I'm the sort that can also tell you you that when you get on I-10 that's the

Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, another road named for a racist. There are signs indicating these things. Only little kids and nerds notice them, I have been both extensively in CA.

[antiquie]

10. That's sad.

Maybe sick is the word.

[Cleita]

2. Here's another article on offensive names.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46531169/ns/us_news-life/t/negro-creek-wop-draw-place-names-offend/#.VaU_ChxQMa4

Others, such as the former Olympic ski resort of Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe have become so ingrained in the vernacular that they're spoken without a second thought. And yet, nine states are on a mission to scrub "squaw" from their maps, a slang word first given to Native women that came to mean both a part of the female genitalia and a woman of ill repute. California is not among those states, to the continuing frustration of many regional Indian tribes.

"It's so disrespectful I'm not even going to say the name," said Chairman James Ramos of the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians in Southern California. "Every time I hear that I think of our women elders and my daughters and my wife, and I'm not going to degrade them that way by repeating the name. It's deplorable to all native people across the United States."

Ramos was incredulous to learn that a conical mountain peak in his tribal area along Interstate 15 between Barstow and Las Vegas is named "Squaw Tit," one of more than a thousand places across the U.S. with the S-word in it and eight places with the exact name.

These are not only racist but sexist as well.

[KamaAina]

3. One wonders what that valley's native name is.

They could go with that, as Alaskans have done with Denali (f/k/a Mt. McKinley). Or they could just call it "Olympic Valley" (home of 1960 Winter Games).

[Cleita]

5. Olympic Valley sounds good. n/t

[antiquie]

4. Thank you.

[arcane1]

6. Interesting about Highway 99. There's a Jefferson Davis Highway in my home town

And people are petitioning to have it renamed. Naturally, there is resistance. Half the resisters probably have no idea who he is.

[petronius]

7. Very interesting! Most of those I didn't know or had never heard

I think they're mistaken about Bragg though, he never commanded or even visited the fort (and I don't think it should be changed)...

[Brother Buzz]

8. What's more, Fort Bragg was nothing but a military outpost to provide security and administer...

the Mendocino Indian Reservation. Now, that begs the question, "What the Hell happened to the Mendocino Indian Reservation when someone discovered a ready market for the superb redwood trees growing on Pomo Indian land?".

[mackerel]

11. I've driven up and down Highway 99 all my lazy life

the only other name I've known it by is Golden State Highway.