Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons User Sswonk

You live where? Ever heard of Boring, Maryland or Hell, Michigan, or Intercourse, Pennsylvania?

America is full of very peculiar names for towns and cities.

They got their names from the Post Office so mail could be delivered.

That even includes Peculiar, Missouri.

It’s a place 30 miles south of Kansas City, and when the folks there were trying to name their town, they wanted to call it Excelsior.

But the name was already taken.

So they wrote the Postmaster and said “we’ll take any name you have as long as it’s peculiar.”

The Postmaster took them at their word.

How about wide Awake, Colorado? It was named by tired minors trying to name their town.

No one is quite sure how Hell, Michigan got its name.

But there’s no confusion about Tightwad, Missouri.

It was named after a storeowner who cheated a customer—who just happened to be the postman.

He got his revenge.

For more information about unique destinations around the country, check out:

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• Discovering Food & Wine in San Luis Obispo County
• 10 Places the Locals Love on Oahu

Keep reading for more travel tips.