Made It Fit the Name

1901

"Red Rock, N. Y.," said a man who spent some time there, "isn't much of a place, but there is something interesting about it that I fancy all the world doesn't know. The present name is not the one it has always borne, and what its other name was I don't know. Whatever it was the people did not like it and concluded they would change it. There was no particular reason why they should call it Red Rock, but that was determined upon, and so Red Rock it became.

"Then in the course of time strangers of an inquiring turn of mind began to ask why the place had such a name, and as no reason could be given newcomers to the neighborhood began to want a name that meant something. This insistence grew so strong that the old residents began to look around for a reason for the name of their place, and at last they found a huge boulder nearby which they said was what had suggested the name. But the boulder was gray instead of red, and the progressists insisted that that would not do. At last the old timers hit upon a new plan, and, procuring a barrel of red paint, they painted the big rock red. Red Rock indeed it was now, and not only was all opposition to the name overcome, but the painting of the rock every spring has become an annual festival, and the people celebrate it with a big picnic and general celebration.

"It was a new idea to me, and if there is any other town anywhere on earth that is christened every spring with red paint or any other color I don't know where it is." — New York Sun.