Official Naming of Cochran Hill

 

 I think it is always interesting to learn how our local places received their names.  

A lot of the time our roads were named for a family that lived near-by or they owned the property where the road was.

Many of our county roads today have family names to identify them by, also by cemeteries and schools that were nearby would be a good way to name a road. 

Many places that were known for having bad wrecks on them would be nick-named by local citizens and called that through the years.  Crayne Hill and Dead Man's Curve, just outside of Marion on 60 West, were two of the worse, also Rosebud Hill another one known for it's deadly curve.

 

Cochran hill about 2 miles south of Marion of Hwy 91S was  just called Cochran hill and curve for many years, that is what it was known by as the Cochran family lived at the top of the hill.

 It was always a deadly curve with a steep hill to climb, and terrible in the winter with ice and snow.  Many a vehicle ended up going off the bridge and into the field below as it tried to navigate and get speed to climb the hill. 

It was improved for safely reasons in later years and isn't as dangerous today as it once was, as you can see in the picture, it's more of a straight road now.

 

Most roads/hwy. are never officially named, but Cochran hill and curve has it's own history about its name.

Crittenden Press. Dec. 29, 1983 -

Geological Survey officially dubs Cochran Hill and Curve

The hill and curve on Ky. 91 two miles south of Marion, which Crittenden Countians have for years referred to as Cochran Hill, has been registered under that name by the federal government.

 

The U. S. Board on Geographic Names conferred the name to the hill earlier this year in honor of Herbert Lyle Cochran, a Crittenden County farmer and carpenter, who lived there from 1911 until his death in 1976. 

John Parr Cochran of Charlotte, N. C., executor of his father's estate, said this week he began attempts to get the area officially named as Cochran Hill shortly after his father died. “I just wanted to get Dad some recognition,” he said.

 

The process involved documenting that the locale had no other official name and getting its certification from the national agency with headquarters at Reston Va.

 

Some states, Cochran said, have agencies which name geographic locations, but Kentucky does not so the jurisdiction fell to the national board, a division of the U. S. Geological Survey.

 

Cochran said he obtained letters of recommendation from then County Judge R. C. Hamilton, his mother Margaret Cochran, and other residents in the area.

 

The Cochran family has owned land in the area since the late 1700's. A log house was built there in 1879, he said and that was remodeled in 1802. That one stood just off Ky. 91 until it was replaced by the house presently there in the 1950's.