A few days ago, I wrote a story about a chemical spill for The Journal News. As someone was delivering chlorine to a pool, a valve on the delivery truck started leaking, causing the chlorine to eventually seep into a brook. Fish were killed too, and a park had to be evacuated.
But what brook was it?
As one of my sources said, it’s the “Narashan Brook.”
“Don’t ask me to spell that for you,” he added.
Immediately, I searched Google and looked through my paper’s stylebook to no luck. I then realized that the copy desk probably won’t know how to spell it, either.
After all, relatively minor geographic features like a small, meandering brook are not household names.
I then decided to look it up on a topographic map, which can be downloaded as PDFs for free.
In a search that didn’t even take me five minutes, I came across the correct spelling: Nauraushaun.
I highly recommend all journalists like me try to “cq” the spelling of an obscure geographic feature against a topographic map — because it’d be hard to find the spelling otherwise!
Tags: The Journal News, topographic map, USGS
I'm on the aforementioned copy desk. We'd know to look it up, in the paper's stylebook, even. It was right there for you.
Nauraushaun Brook
In Orangetown. Also former hamlet in Pearl River, name of church, creek, etc.
Modified: 4/1/00 Category: Parks, Streets, etc.