What does "level" mean in a road name?

[gwyneth]

Personally, I like Gun Barrel City, Ding Dong, and Uncertain, all in Texas of course. But, it's hard to compare them to:

Blueballs, PA (somewhere near Intercourse and Climax, PA)
Assawoman, VA
Toad Suck, AK, and
Monkey's Elbow, KY

Well, those names raise more questions than they answer, and I'd certainly like to hear the stories behind some of them.

The thing about "Fordtranny" as a geographic name is that it almost certainly tells us the relevant facts. Of course, there's a remote chance that residents worship, eat, harvest, or otherwise celebrate the Ford transmission. But it's a lot more likely that the non-synchromeshed Model A gears had something to do with early settlement patterns.

[LCHIEN]

back to the original topic, (I do love this detective work)
there are at least two Pine Level, NC, both unincorporated towns, in two counties in NC, as well as two Green Levels and two Level Cross towns als in different counties. There were the other towns, all unincorporated, mentioned before.

There are no other towns with Level in the name in SC or VA.
This according to searching I did on Google Earth.

Must have been a legal definition of town or parcel of land peculiar to NC at some time.

[gwyneth]

There are no other towns with Level in the name in SC or VA.
This according to searching I did on Google Earth.

Must have been a legal definition of town or parcel of land peculiar to NC at some time.

Loring, you should check out the government's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). A search there shows 417 U.S. geographic features with 'level' in the name.

"Populated places" include Scalp Level and Chestnut Level, PA; Oak Level, Cedar Level, Sandy Level, VA; Bacon Level, AL; Chalk Levels in VA, MO, TN, and NC; and our fave, Frog Level, in several states, as the screen shot shows.

Of course, a variety of other types of geographic features make up the 417.

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/
Search GNIS (includes FIPS55)

[prlundberg]

Personally, I like Gun Barrel City, Ding Dong, and Uncertain, all in Texas of course. But, it's hard to compare them to:

Blueballs, PA (somewhere near Intercourse and Climax, PA)
Assawoman, VA
Toad Suck, AK, and
Monkey's Elbow, KY

Sorry to veer a bit off topic again, but I have to add my Minnesota favorites:

Nimrod
Downer
Embarrass

Climax and Fertile are about 30 miles apart. I've been told there was once a headline that read "Fertile Woman Dies in Climax", but it may be an urban legend.

Still curious about "level" though. Never heard that name used around here, but it would accurately describe the area.

[TheRic]

89 populated places the bulk are:
AL 21
NC 14
VA 11
MD 6
GA 5
PA 5
KY 4

I'm leaning toward it has to do with bragging / advertising they have flat land to build, grow.

[gwyneth]

89 populated places the bulk are:
AL 21
NC 14
VA 11
MD 6
GA 5
PA 5
KY 4

I'm leaning toward it has to do with bragging / advertising they have flat land to build, grow.

Or just describing. We've all heard of places like "Sleepy Hollow" but the actual physical aspects of a "hollow" on mountainous, uncleared, unroaded land are somewhat abstract to modern urban/suburbanites.

[ExYankee]

Perhaps it’s a local term. When I lived in Central Oregon, there were all these “market roads Deschutes Market, Alfalfa Market, Reed Market, etc.
After living there a few years I chanced to be talking to a rancher who told me that the names came from before the trucking of cattle, for name roads on which it was legal and expected that you would drive your cattle right down the road to the local auction.

[gwyneth]

And in Texas there are farm-to-market roads, which I think started as a special legislative category for building funds, traffic laws, etc.