Talk:Wears Valley, Tennessee

"Wear" vs. "Wears"

I went with "Wears" Valley instead of "Wear" Valley, as the locals almost exclusively call it "Wears Valley." The sign at the entrance to the town says "Wears Valley (Unincorporated)" and the main road through the valley is called "Wears Valley Road." It should be noted that some federal agencies still use "Wear Valley," however.

I went with "Wear Cove," since while the locals use "Wears Cove" and "Wear Cove" interchangeably, "Wear Cove" appears on USGS topographical maps.

Bms4880 21:18, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

I figure you know, but the USGS GNIS gives U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Wear Valley as the so-called official name. Not that the federal government has the power to enforce such things, but I thought I'd link to that site for whatever it is worth. I wonder how the -s was lost given that it is named for Samuel Wear. Oop, and I see there is a Wear Valley page, but it is about a place in England. Maybe a hatnote or disambig would be useful. If I find the time I'll do it. Pfly (talk) 04:36, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It may have been called "Wear" at one time. The USGS apparently went with "Wear" based on old maps. Some older people in the area pronounce it without the S, although they spell it with the S. Bms4880 (talk) 20:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Prevailing usage DEFINITELY includes the S. The only thing I would wonder about is whether it should include an apostrophe (properly it should be "Wear's Cove" and Wear's Valley, but I think that "Wears Cove" and Wears Valley are probably the dominant form). --Orlady (talk) 21:01, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Its root is a possessive, but it's almost always spelled without the apostrophe. Again, I went with how Wears Valleyans were spelling it. Most websites also use "wears." The USGS doesn't use apostrophes for possessive names— I'm not sure if that somehow influenced the prevailing spelling. Bms4880 (talk) 22:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Yea it is extremely rare to find a possessive apostrophe in a placename. I think this was one of the things the USGS Board of Geographical Names was most successful on standardizing in the late 1800s. As far as I know there are only one or two possessive names still common. One is Martha's Vineyard. I don't know if this played into Wears Valley though. It is interesting to learn of places where local usage differs from GNIS "official" form. There aren't a whole lot. Usually the GNIS decides in favor of local usage. Pfly (talk) 04:01, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

"Tennessee" in article name

This article was recently moved to Wears Valley from Wears Valley, Tennessee. I don't see any discussion of this, but my guess is that the rationale is that this is the only "Wears Valley" in the world. However, the shorter name is inconsistent with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#United States, which calls for use of the "City, State" form except for a few specified major cities.

I intend to move the article back, based on conformance with the wikipedia naming convention. --Orlady (talk) 05:36, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

If "Wears Valley" is not the name of a valley, but rather a community, then it would conform for it to have the ", Tennessee" after it. But a census county division is not in itself a community (it is an arbitrary line with no legal definition in state law, where local government is defined), and I've never seen a Wikipedia article on any other CCD. In addition, the article is about the entire valley called "Wear Cove". Therefore, that is the most appropriate title.  –radiojon (talk) 04:38, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Rural Tennesseans not being fond of municipal government, populated places such as Wears Valley often have no more official status than census county division. Wears Valley is a very real settled place with a rapidly growing population and a lot of controversy about runaway development. If you want to create a separate article about Wear Cove, please do so, but you can't change this community back into a landform. --Orlady (talk) 04:52, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I admit I had not heard of "census county division" before, but I've seen many many WP articles for Census-designated places, which appears to be essentially the same thing, legally. If a source is needed other than the Census Bureau showing Wear Valley as a settlement, pretty much any road map will do. Here is the place shown in Google Maps, for what it's worth. I have this page on my watchlist because I've been there and found it interesting. I would like to someday see a page on Wear Cove, the valley, if only because I find the cove valleys of that region curious and interesting. But even without such a page existing yet, it seems sensible to distinguish between the settlement and the valley. Pfly (talk) 05:07, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

EVERYONE in East Tennessee calls this "Wears Valley". The federal government switches back and forth between "Wears Valley" and "Wear Cove", depending on the agency. The sign at the entrance to the cove says "Wears Valley (Unincorporated)". Newspapers call it "Wears Valley". The half-dozen or so cabin rental agencies there call it "Wears Valley". The Save Our Mountains group calls it "Wears Valley". This article is primarily about the community, which calls itself "Wears Valley", but I initially included the redirect for Wear Cove since that feature lacked its own article, and the community covers most of the cove.

This is the only instance of which I've seen a "census county division", but as pfly pointed out, the number of "unincorporated communities" with articles would number in the thousands. Why WV has this designation, I don't know. It may give them some legal status and thus allow them more control over development, or protect parts of the valley from being annexed by adjacent towns, all of which are hurting for land. But a lot of unincorporated communities have articles, and most of them are not nearly as notable as Wears Valley. Bms4880 (talk) 14:52, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I included "Tennessee" since it's a community, and to help further distinguish it from Wear Valley in England. Bms4880 (talk) 14:54, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Do people in East Tennessee generally call the valley itself "Wear Cove"? As with nearby Cades Cove and Tuckaleechee Cove? I assumed so. It appears this way on maps anyway (see this USGS page for example; click "Topo" and zoom in). Also I just noticed that Tuckaleechee Cove is a redirect to Townsend, Tennessee. Another merged populated place and landform. Cades Cove is different of course, for being in the National Park. In any case, I understand the logic of merging articles on populated places with landforms when the two are closely linked, as with these three coves, but as articles grow the merged nature can create confusion, especially when using categories (I'm about to add the Category "Valleys of Tennessee" to the cove pages, which would not make sense for populated places, for example). Pfly (talk) 18:27, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

People in ET call the whole thing "Wears Valley", generally, but I give the USGS more weight when naming a landform (as opposed to a community), so "Wear Cove" is what I would use for the landform. "Cades Cove" is both the name of the valley and the ex-community, so it's no issue. Tuckaleechee Cove and Townsend are in a similar situation to Wears Valley and Wear Cove, although Townsend probably covers less of Tuckaleechee than Wears covers of Wear Cove. The name "Tuckaleechee" is fairly commonly applied to various entities in the cove, such as Tuckaleechee Caverns. So, it was probably a stretch for me to redirect one to the other. Bms4880 (talk) 19:27, 25 February 2009 (UTC)