Cool names might save anonymous waterways

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

MIKE HARDEN

The word Scioto, reliable sources confirm, means deer in the tongue of either the Iroquois or Wyandot Indians.

Olentangy is thought to be Algonquin in origin and, by adaptation, either Shawnee or Delaware. It roughly translates to "place where paint is found" or "red face paint from the river." The name recognizes a natural source of pigment that American Indians employed to mark their faces.

I tend to go with "red face paint from the river," given the fact that even yet today whooping, chanting, shirtless men gather by the banks of the Olentangy to paint their faces red on certain autumn Saturdays.

I found myself nosing around for the roots of the names of central Ohio's chief rivers and streams after learning that the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has launched a campaign inviting the public to help name as many of the area's unchristened streams and runs as possible.

MORPC's Andrea Gorzitze freely acknowledges that part of the impetus for naming seemingly inconsequential runnels and races is to earn them a little respect when the bulldozers of progress threaten. When plans for subdivisions or minimalls menace undeveloped land, Gorzitze said, "These small streams are often put in pipes underground."

Mobilizing public support that would compel developers to respect such lesser channels might be easier, Gorzitze thinks, if those streams had names, or a designation other than "ditch."

"There are plenty of small tributaries in the western part of Franklin County called ditches, " she said. "Hamilton Ditch is one of the two streams that form Hellbranch Run.

"Holcomb Ditch is in Hilliard," she said. "When people hear the word ditch, they think, 'Oh, it is probably just some man-made ditch that isn't worth anything from an ecological perspective. Just a ditch.' But Holcomb Ditch is a really beautiful stream that functions very well in ecological terms."

That makes sense. It is easier to mobilize concerned citizens to save Pleasantview Stream than Fussmucker's Ditch, or a waterway that has always run in nameless anonymity.

Gorzitze said that at least a dozen small tributary streams in the western part of the county are not named.

She hopes that county residents who live by those meandering rivulets will reveal elements of area history that would help with the name.

"Maybe they know of a family that has lived along that tributary for more than a century," she said.

Too often, when we create subdivisions, the only homage we pay to natural elements is to name the streets after trees we bulldoze, the wildlife we displace or the vistas we ruin.

Gorzitze said that MORPC, Friends of the Scioto River and Friends of Alum Creek and Tributaries are not looking for random names. Think of a theme.

I thought it might be nice to name these small bodies of water after former city mayors, from Tom Moody and Ralston Westlake all the way back to John Hinkle and James G. Bull.

Unfortunately, we'd end up with Moody River (too much like a sappy Pat Boone song) or Westlake Lake (courtesy of the Division of Redundancy

Division) or Bull Run. And what would you call a trickling rivulet named for Hinkle that local wags wouldn't immediately re-christen Hinkle's Tinkle.

What do you think, readers?

Call Gorzitze at 614-233-4124 or her co-worker Erin Miller at 614-233-4178.

But if you come up with something truly weird, e-mail me, too.

Mike Harden is a Dispatch Metro columnist. He can be reached at 614-461-5215 or by e - mail.