London, Granada, Holland: the Founding Fathers of America showed little ingenuity in naming the new settlements. But how did Prince Otto von Bismarck get the North Dakota capital named?
Bismarck, the current seat of the government of North Dakota, is named after former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. (Image: PD)
Americans like to think of themselves as great innovators. But the founding fathers showed little ingenuity when it came to naming new settlements – London, Paris, Holland – European settlers often copied well-known names. Traces of the Germans in particular are still tattooed in the American landscape: Schoeneck is in Pennsylvania, Schaumburg in Illinois, Mecklenburg in New York and Stuttgart in Kansas. There are no fewer than 20 Hamburgs and between California and Vermont there are more than 40 Berliners, often small towns with a fraction of the population having the big brother.
