A poem dedicated
to the United States Board on Geographic Names. Members of the Coast
and Geodetic Survey and NOAA have served on this board since its beginnings
in the late Nineteenth Century; and, since 1960, on its Advisory Committee
for Undersea Features (ACUF) . It is responsible for all of the official
names of features that go on maps, charts, and atlases published by
the United States Government. Lewis Heck was the Coast and Geodetic
Survey representative to the U.S.B.G.N. during the 1940's.
By
Lewis Heck
What’s in
a name?
There’s many a town or village
throughout the nation
With one name for the general
Appellation,
Another for the mail,
And, to complete the tale,
A third quite different for
the railway station.
The C&GS has
its charts
nautical,
The Army Engineers their
quadrangles tactical,
The USGS issues maps
topographical,
When differences occur,
Or mappers err,
The Board must make its
solutions practical.
Aye, there’s
the rub,
For oft its difficult to
make a wise selection
From all the names submitted
for inspection.
And local residents object
To what the Board tries to
effect,
And carry on with the old names
long held in affection.
The board thus
has a heavy
duty,
For while all Federal maps
Should follow its decisions
They often fail to get
required revisions
Or local folks can be quite
snooty
Thus failing often to follow
suite
And show the Board they have
no use for its provisions.
The net
result is like all
human effort,
Mixed good and bad, better
prevailing over worse,
In spite of poverty,
But with authority,
The Board fulfils its functions
quite diverse,
Of umpire for the names of
the Universe.
