Talk:Howard City, Nebraska

Name

We need to straighten out the name of this municipality: is it "Howard City" or "Boelus"?

Per WP:PLACE: "[w]hen a widely accepted English name, in a modern context, exists for a place, we should use it. This will often be a local name, or one of them..."

Searching GNIS for "Howard City" and for "Boelus" in Howard County, Nebraska turns up both names. "Boelus" appears, among other things, as a populated place and as a post office; "Village of Howard City" appears as "Civil" class. The GNIS results indicate that the USGS topo map is titled "Boelus".

Google Maps calls the community "Howard City" (see 41.073204°N 98.715598°W / 41.073204; -98.715598). Nebraska's Legislative Research Division also gives it that name (see this document.

Looking up 68820 at the USPS's ZIP Code search (usps.com; click "Look Up a ZIP Code" at left; click "More lookup options" at very bottom of pop-up window; click "Look Up a City by ZIP Code") returns "Boelus". This name also appears on the Howard County website, and on the Nebraska Department of Roads map of Howard County (Boelus is at southwest corner of county). A short history written by local residents uses "Boelus".

Searching the Nebraska State Historical Society website for ("howard city") turns up 3 documents; searching for (boelus) turns up 14 documents. One of these turns up in both searches. A list of Howard County records on microfilm held by the NSHS, it uses "Boelus" in connection with a 1924 document and a 1924-1926 tax roll; "Howard City" is used on three documents dated 1886 and 1887.

My 2005 Delorme atlas of Nebraska labels the town "Boelus", as does my Rand McNally US atlas (date unknown) and the Rand McNally website (click the "Online Maps" radio button and do a ZIP Code search for 68820).

The official highway signs at the edges of town on Highway 58 read "Boelus". The west-facing sign at the western edge of town can be seen in the Google Street View photo for (41.07416,-98.723291). It's right under a 45-mph sign. Although the name is illegible, its length is consistent with "Boelus" and not with "Howard City".

I am inclined to move this page to "Boelus, Nebraska", since that name seems to be used more often and more recently (and on OR: as a Nebraskan, I've heard it called "Boelus" often; I had no inkling that it was called Howard City until I read this article). However, since there's room for debate on the issue, I'll try for consensus here before undertaking the move. Ammodramus (talk) 05:12, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Forgot to add the U.S. Census Bureau: on their American Fact Finder, it's "Howard City", with no results for "Boelus". Ammodramus (talk) 12:17, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

So basically your research shows that the GNIS agrees with other sources in both ways: what else you find for the municipality agrees with its conclusion that the municipality is named Howard City, and what else you find for the community agrees with its conclusion that the populated place is named Boelus. Obviously we don't follow precisely the official names in cases such as "Township of ___" or "City of ___", but in all cases with which I'm familiar in which the municipality and the populated place have substantially different names, we've gone with the municipal name. See Hartford, Ohio for an example; it's Croton populated place and Hartford civil. Basically, our articles about all types of US municipalities are about those municipalities and not the populated places. Otherwise we'd merge border towns like Union City into single articles, since they're not really separate populated places; with articles such as Oakley, Kansas we'd list them in just one county and ignore the municipal boundaries that extend way away from the populated place into another county; and with articles about municipalities whose borders are county lines, we'd often include them in multiple counties. TLDR summary: I support Howard City. Nyttend (talk) 16:44, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

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