From Yeehaw To Sopchoppy, Travel The Past


April 14, 1996|By Dana Ste. Claire

For those who are familiar with rural Florida, finding the blink-of-the-eye, sleepy little town of Wewahitchka is easy: Just travel west from Sopchoppy, cross the Ochlockonee and Apalachicola rivers in Wakulla County, and there it is. For the less-experienced back-roads trekker, finding a place like Chassahowitzka can be challenge without the right road map.

Florida, perhaps more than any other state, has unusually named, remote towns and crossroads that are just as hard to pronounce as they are to find.

A good number of Florida's unique place names were derived from earlier Native American names for lakes, rivers and villages, or from events connected with these locations.

In the case of long rivers and broad territories, different groups of Native Americans often would name only the section with which they were familiar. This practice resulted in several names for the same location, confusing many who later settled the area.

Although some of the names were carried over from prehistoric times, most were developed by the Creek who migrated into North Florida and became known as Seminoles after the disappearance of earlier Native Americans.

Over time, many of the original Native American names were adopted by European settlers in Florida. Others, mostly those that were difficult to pronounce or remember, were modified or changed. Like Crystal River, for example, which was changed from Wewahaiyayaki, a Seminole word meaning ''shining crystal water.''

Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach derives its name from a historical mispronunciation of the name of a tribe of Native Americans who once occupied Volusia County. Tomoka is actually an early corruption of the word Timucua, the name of the indigenous people of the area. Contrary to popular belief, no Tomoka Indians lived in Volusia.

Because Florida's Native American groups had no written languages or alphabetic systems, Spanish, French and English explorers and settlers spelled the Indian words phonetically. Thus, words like Tomoka were concocted.

But many of the original Native American place names have endured through history and today are stamped indelibly upon Florida's geography. Although their meanings have become obscured over time, the strange names of rural communities remind us of old Florida and the way things used to be. Still, the odd names make us scratch our heads from time to time.

Yeehaw Junction, for example, wasn't named for a group of yahoos that once lived in the area. The name is actually a corruption of the Creek word yaha, for ''wolf,'' but no one knows why.

Palatka, to the north, comes from the Creek word pilotiketa, meaning ''boat crossing.''

Wekiva, the famous springs, is Seminole for ''mystery,'' not ''clear water'' as it is often interpreted.

Other names make reference to important locations of food. Chassahowitzka on the west coast of Florida means ''hanging pumpkins.'' Apopka means ''potato-eating place,'' while Tsala Apopka means ''bass-eating location.''

As strange as they may sometimes sound, nothing reflects the history of Florida and the people who settled this state as much as its unusual place names.

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