Huckleberries: Smile when you say ‘Athol’

I gave my brother-in-law William a tutorial on Idaho town names during his visit to Coeur d’Alene recently. He’s thinking about moving his family to the area. If he does move, I told him, he needs to change his California license plates ASAP – and pronounce state town names correctly. It’s MOSS-coh, not Mos-COW. Boi-See, not Boy-Zee. Wee-IPE. Kammy-eye. And, of course, CORE-da-lane. Recently, I received a refresher course on the right way to say Gem State town names while viewing “The Idaho Cities Song” video by Peter Bierma. In reporting on Bierma’s clever, rhyming song, KTVB said: “The catchy tune takes listeners on a very fast city-by-city tour of the state, and sets the record straight on the most mispronounced town names.” Bierma explained to KTVB that he was inspired to write “The Idaho Cities Song” after a few mispronunciations of his own. Bierma, of course, gives special attention in his two-minute-plus spiel to ATH-ull, which, he acknowledges, might cause uninformed outsiders to sweat while trying to pronounce it. But it’s a city name guaranteed to cause longtime Idahoans to chuckle/ DFO , Sunday Huckleberries. More here.

Question: Which Idaho town name gives you the most trouble?