RickRouse.com

Reflecting on “Hog Thief Creek”

Mar 27, 2008 My thoughts on...

Some of my most enduring childhood memories of my dad are of the times he would drive our family down the narrow country road that followed a stream known as “Hog Thief Creek”. The name of the creek intrigued me from the start, and every time we went down that road I would ask him how it got its name. And his answer was always the same: “I don’t really know, but I’ll bet it involved a hog and a crook”.
 
Although that answer never really satisfied me, it was the only one I ever got – and to this day I can still “hear” my dad’s voice as he matter-of-factly gave it to me. Now, fast-forward some 40 years…
 
A couple of years ago when Cheria and I were looking for a house to buy, we just happened to be driving down Hog Thief Creek when we saw a “For Sale” sign in front of a nice, large brick house. We pulled into the driveway and sat there for a minute or two looking over the property, but I more or less ruled it out on my own because I thought it would be out of our price range.
 
Well, to make a long story short, we ended up buying that house, but we discovered that it didn’t sit beside Hog Thief Creek. It seems that back when Washington County set up their 911 Emergency Contact system the creek and roadway were renamed “Greenway Creek” and “Greenway Road”. But to me, we’ll always be living on Hog Thief Creek.

It might not be “politically correct”, but that’s what it’s always been and that’s what it will always be. And although I guess I’ll never know how our little creek got that intriguing name in the first place, dad’s answer to my question is just fine with me these days.