Country road names inspire us to travel them

“Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong …”

— John Denver

Sometimes country roads are named for wildlife. This is nothing original and it’s hardly creative, but wild animals are an essential part of our culture and this is our way to bring it home every day.

Who wouldn’t want to live on Bluebird Lane or Caribou Road as opposed to Duh Drive or Puddin’ Ridge Road or This Ain’t It Road?

While I was thinking about this article the last few weeks, I started to document some of the wildlife road signs in Boundary County including; Goat Mountain Road, Deer Park Road, Bison Road, Foxglove Road, Fawn Lane, Mallard Road, Lions Den Road, Osprey Road, Pheasant Run Road, Buzzard Lake Road, Painted Horse Road, Eagle Crest Road, Cow Creek Road, Beaver Tail Road, Lynx Road, Grouse Hill Road, Stellar Jay Road, Pintail Drive, Wood Duck Lane, Widgeon Court, Wolverine Road, Gray Wolf Road, and Coyote Way — just to name a few.

But not every species gets a road. If that were the case, there would be more than enough names to go around. There aren’t many Starling Roads, Norway Rat Circles, or House Mouse Highways. Lobsters and clams might make the grade because they are tasty, butterflies and honeybees because they are pretty or perform a service, but most other invertebrates are less charismatic and because of that, their names don’t inspire. Clearly, you’ve got to be cool to become a name of a country road.

That same rationale seems to hold true for extinct species. After all, what Dodo bird would name a road for a species that doesn’t even exist anymore? Wouldn’t that have the potential to jinx the entire neighborhood with the same fate?

At one time, it seemed that road signs were named only for game animals. Names like pintail, deer, grouse, elk, mallard, bighorn, and moose have been perennial favorites and probably still dominate in the name game. However, as society has come to appreciate unhunted species, names like kestrel, tanager, badger and ermine are gaining recognition. Still, names such as lizard, frog, toad, skunk, meadow vole and shrew struggle for popularity.

This frenzy to find cool animal names seems to get carried away at times. It’s silly to name roads for animals that don’t even live in this part of the country. In Idaho, gators don’t even exist. You have to go hundreds of miles east to see a cardinal, aardvark, or opossum, for example.

Enjoy the outdoors, go for a drive on the country roads in Boundary County and you might enjoy some scenery and wildlife you haven’t seen for a while ... and don’t forget to wave. You know you are in a friendly place when you’re on a rural road named for the outdoors and folks wave at you as you drive by.

Sometimes you just have to find an older dirt road and go to where it takes you. Life is simpler on the backroads.