Road names in Vernon County have historical roots

The Vernon County Commission met on Tuesday, Feb. 7, to discuss the new names of roads that are being instituted throughout Vernon County.

Pat Brophy of the Bushwhacker Museum and Vernon County Historical Society was the official consultant for the proposed road name changes.

The commission believes that changing the road names is a sign of progress. Throughout the years, the road names of Vernon County have lain in obscurity -- most had no official name, but were commonly known by names like "pepper hill" and "beer can drive."

These names are a local phenomenon, many of the families who have passed through the county throughout the years have rural roads named after them. In the early days of Vernon County, citizens could pay the county to dedicate roads to their loved ones, and so they did. However, road signs have never been in place, and in some cases there were two names for the same road.

Most roads did not have any official signs, they haven't any official names either and are known to different generations of Vernon County's citizens in different forms. Pat Brophy and members of the Vernon County Historical society believe that utilizing names from local and national historical sources will not only bring some organization to the county's roads; but it will also bring some relief to emergency workers who have to access remote areas of the county without getting lost. Though some of the road names are not local they are intriguing -- names such as Rebel Road, Todd Road, Mohawk Road and Mole Road. Some of these origins might be quite obvious, take Rebel Road, for instance, a name for those citizens of states that were in rebellion during the civil war. Then there's Mohawk Road. The Mohawk are a tribe that originated in the New York area of the United States. A formidable tribe and part of the five nations, historically they have been involved in the French and Indian wars, American Revolution and local skirmishes with the northeastern frontier population.

All the roads have meanings -- even Mole Road, which is not named after the underground rodents that dig through gardens, but a prominent member of Vernon County's past.

The Vernon County historical society will also be releasing a booklet that will explain the proposed road name changes as well as their sources of inspiration. The commission has already begun preparing and placing the signs in many areas of the county.