Talk:Devils Postpile National Monument

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For Google: Devils Postpile National Monument

Does anybody have any idea why there's no apostrophe in the monument's name? I thought that was wrong till I went to the official site and, yes, there's no apostrophe. RickK 04:55, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

As I understand it, in many countries, apostrophes are deprecated on topographic maps. See, e.g., [1][2][3]. The reasons for this are obscure. So, many geographical features that you think should have an apostrophe actually don't. Since the NM was named after the geological feature, it inherited the lack of apostrophe. -- hike395 06:51, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The gov.au reference above seems to be incorrect. See [4], which seems to make the reason clear: "The reason is simply that the GNC does not want to show possession for natural features because 'ownership of a feature is not in and of itself a reason to name a feature or change its name.' " Similarly, the USGS states that "We suspect that the reason is simply that the U.S. Board on Geographic Names does not want to show possession for natural features because 'ownership of a feature is not in and of itself a reason to name a feature or change its name.' " Jim 05:25, 26 October 2006 (UTC)