The Wall Street Journal has an article about the lack of apostrophes in US place names titled “Theres a Question Mark Hanging Over the Apostrophes Future.” (Reading this makes me apoplectic.)
The U.S., in fact, is the only country with an apostrophe-eradication policy. The program took off when President Benjamin Harrison set up the Board on Geographic Names in 1890. By one board estimate, it has scrubbed 250,000 apostrophes from federal maps. The states mostly—but not always—bow to its wishes.
An apostrophe, the argument goes, implies private ownership of a public place. When names appear on maps, “they change from words having specific dictionary meaning to fixed labels used to refer to geographic entities,” the names committee explains in its statement of “Principles, Policies and Procedures.”
Ack! The horror!
Thanks to copy editor Jesse Vernon for the link.