I think that the original hoosier settlers were actually viking descendants, but kind of the opposite. You know how way back in the day those clever Scandinavians named Greenland and Iceland in such a way as to attract opposing colonies to what was actually a frozen wasteland (i.e. Greenland) instead of the lush, volcanically fertile isle (i.e. Iceland), and thus inventing a kind of indirect pillaging? Those wily devils. Well, the pioneers who found themselves in the Midwest were like vikings in that they used really clever, deceiving names but instead of discouraging settlers they actually attracted them to the flat, ordinary plains of Indiana. On a map of Indiana (seriously, I took out a map and looked at it. Ok, overstatement... I googled a map and looked at that.) you will find the following names (plus a lot more, but these are just a few good examples):
Brazil
Peru
Kokomo
Morocco
Canaan
New Palestine
New Lisbon (For shame, I actually had to research where the "old" Lisbon is--Portugal)
Misleading much? Any ignorant, careless explorer would have looked at an early cartographers depiction of Indiana and gotten legitimately excited about bushwhacking in some jungle teeming with wildlife and Amazons or bargaining in culturally rich bazaars. Maybe the colonials were just trying to convince themselves of Indiana's appeal... like that by naming their bitty settlement after an exciting place, they could believe that there was a good reason to be there. I guess it worked...
And then of course there are other names that I don't even try to understand, like French Lick and Santa Claus. I wish I could meet their founders.
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