Nome, Alaska

Population: 3,592 (2004 est.)
Coordinates: 64 30 N 165 25 W
Everybody makes mistakes—including cartographers. Take a closer look at the state of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula. In the mid-19th century, a British mapmaker transcribing a naval chart apparently misread “? Name” as “C. Nome,” thus giving this small Alaskan city its appellation. And although a group of miners attempted to rename the settlement Anvil City in 1899, the United States Postal Service insisted on Nome, after the cape on the Norton Sound. Which begs the question: Did North Dakota and Texas arrive at Nomes of their own due to similar errors?

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