Looking at recent observations, I noticed the first place name is listed as “Mineral Rights”, which would usually be something like the name of a park or neighborhood. There’s no such place in the area named Mineral Rights, did they pull this name from a nearby little parcel related to natural gas maybe? Any other funny examples, if this is what happened? I also just saw another observation, “Turnkey House”, posted to the area of someone’s home. I’m not sure how common this is, but I haven’t noticed it until recently.
There’s a hill in the deserts of San Diego county with the official name of “Round Granite Hill”
Mineral Rights will be because the observer has let the computer give the place name and it just puts the nearest words on the map. You also get observations where the location is given as Holiday Cottages To Let
There are multiple (at least 5 I think) states with a Pumpkin Center and in general weird place names scattered around the world. I think that there are likely two main reasons for this on iNat. One is what @jhbratton suggested (user left the location blank, which most users do, so Google pulled one using its algorithm).
Or the user entered a funny/strange place name, either as a joke, or because it is a name that has some other meaning/usefulness to them (local name that doesn’t show up on most maps, memorable, whatever).
Sometimes you just can’t help running into off-the-wall place names. In just one day (May 31, 2021) I managed to get observations of periodical cicadas from Rabbit Hash, Big Bone, and Beaverlick Church.
My maternal grandmother spent her early years in Hell for Certain, KY, where you can find the nearby town of Krypton and drive along Devil Skull Road.
and more named “Punkin Center”
Aunt Mary’s Bottom, just north of Rampisham Hill, Dorset.
The state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, has always struck me as funny. The English translation is General Mines. Guess what activity is prominent there?
Every mineral collector, venture investor and their household pets know about Minas Gerais.
More gloomy than funny: Worlds End. South Australia 5381
Red dirt with bleached blonde hills in the background. Ruins along the road.
We visited to see the Worlds End Gorge. The path was blocked by barbwire fence. I was disappointed, but it is not the end of the world.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/106022120
Ninety-Six, South Carolina.
Meat Camp, North Carolina
Trust/Luck, North Carolina
Sodom/Revere, North Carolina. Originally named Sodom due to the amount of prostitution that was rampant. Name was changed to Revere after more religious people moved in.
There is a very small town in the south of this state called X’box.
(It means “black” in maya and as the letter x is pronounced like sh it is pronounced Shbosh.)
It is always fun to drive with people not from here on a highway and hear the reactions the first time the name appears on a sign; inevitably they pronounce it like the console and there is confusion.
Boring, Oregon.
So far, most of the examples have been official map names. I think these two plus Turnkey House are the only ones that are not.
Naughty Girl Meadow. The locals called it Whorehouse Meadow, for an obvious reason, but the people who make the maps couldn’t bring themselves to call it that.
Got it!
It’s a place name, not a comment.
It took me a while, but finally figured it out.
They grow coffee. Minas is a fragrant, low acid Robusta coffee from Brazil.
Is this real? Have you inatted there I couldn’t find it on google earth. Sounds like an interesting history.
Used to be real, anyway. SE Oregon. On USGS maps.
I’ve done a lot of photo’ing and iNatting around Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. You can look up the history of that if so inclined.
Also did wildlife surveys many years ago around Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas. Don’t know the origin of that but love it.