If you're not from these towns, the names are pretty strange.

I giggle every time I hear one of these town names said out loud (yes, I'm still 12 at heart) so, i decided to research the history behind them.  Here's what I found from onlyinyourstate.com and michigan.org:

  • Photo By: Google Maps
    Photo By: Google Maps
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    1

    Climax, Michigan

    According to Kalamazoo Public Library, Climax got its name from the son of early settler Judge Caleb Eldred. Eldred had spent months searching for good farming land and came across a prairie in 1834. His son Dan climbed a tree to get a good look at the land and said, “This caps the climax of everything we saw.”  In English, to cap the climax means "to surpass everything as in excellence or in absurdity" - the freedictionary.com

  • "Welcome to Pure Hell, Michigan" (Photo By: Google Maps)
    "Welcome to Pure Hell, Michigan" (Photo By: Google Maps)
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    2

    Hell, Michigan

    Hell, Michigan is located in Putnam Township near the border with Washtenaw County, about 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor. The most popular theory to how this town got it's name involved a man in the 1840’s named George Reeves who, when asked by officials what he wanted to name the settlement he helped start, replied, “Call it Hell for I care!”

  • Photo By: Google Maps
    Photo By: Google Maps
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    3

    Christmas, Michigan

    The Upper Peninsula town of Christmas is just west of Munising, off the shores of Lake Superior.  The story behind this town involves a Munising man who started a roadside factory in 1938 so that he could create holiday gift items. Unfortunately, the factory burned down shortly thereafter, but the name and the factory’s roadside Santa Claus stuck around to this day.

     

  • Photo By: Google Maps
    Photo By: Google Maps
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    4

    Jugville, Michigan

    Just east of Fremont, this unusual name conjures up perhaps a certain connotation.

  • Photo By: Google Maps
    Photo By: Google Maps
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    5

    Paradise, Michigan

    This community is surrounded by forests and is a gateway to the Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  Whitefish Township, Chippewa County

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