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1 year agoYou could also read up on (or just check the Wikipedia page for) “Nouvelle France;” there’s a section on the settlers. All around the Great Lakes and all the way down to the Gulf were French settlements, and the names are largely still there, just weirdly Anglicized. In Arkansas, “La Petit Roche” is Little Rock, there’s a mountain called Petit Jean that’s pronounced “Petty Gene,” and (my favorite) “Aux Arcs” became “Ozarks.” The French influence is still everywhere in the Louisiana Purchase area, it’s just misspelled, mispronounced, or we’ve forgotten it was once French. It blended right in.
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