Chicken, Alaska
icephoenix21/reddit
icephoenix21/reddit
Despite its name and this prominent statue in the small village of Chicken, Alaska, it wasn’t named after any particular knack for poultry farming in the area. In fact, Conde Nast Traveler explained that Chicken was founded in the 1890s by gold prospectors who were trawling the Fortymile River. So, why is it called Chicken?
Well, these prospectors survived their first winter in Alaska by hunting a local bird called a ptarmigan, which was essential enough to the survival of early Alaskans that it’s now their state bird. Naturally, this led the settlers to want to name their town after the bird, but they realized they weren’t confident in the spelling of its name. So, they named the town Chicken instead.