War drawing attention to the many towns named Bagdad

BAGDAD, Calif. -- It's hot and dry here and not terribly hospitable. Years of neglect have left few structures standing. Trucks rumble by, kicking up desert dust.

This is Bagdad -- the California version.

The now-abandoned highway stop deep in the Mojave desert is one of at least 10 Bagdads in a handful of states that existed in relative obscurity until Iraq's capital once again became a target for U.S. bombs.

"We are getting a lot of notoriety right now," said Bill Tucker, 58, who manages Bagdad Roller Mills Inc., a feed store in Bagdad, Ky.

Some of the Bagdads disappeared with only tombstones to show they once thrived, while others prosper in rural counties thanks to a mine, mill or other business.

They survive in federal geological surveys and maps of California, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia, New York and Tennessee. Only three have post offices.

All are quiet. Very quiet.

"There's no shooting. No fighting. No war," said Betty Lucjak, 75, who lives in Bagdad, Pa., 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. "There are only three families down here and I happen to be one of them."

Claude B. Dunlap Jr., chief of the Bagdad, Fla., Volunteer Fire Department, calls his town, just northeast of Pensacola, "a place where you can relax."

"The most important thing we do have here is the fire department. When there are cats in trees or people get sick, they call the fire department," he said.

None of the Bagdads are spelled the same as Iraq's, and only a few share the climate. Some, including Bagdads in Arizona, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, trace their name to a story of a father and son. The tale goes that a son would be working, filling bags with ore, salt or feed, and yell to his father: "bag, dad."

While some residents admit it sounds like a bad joke, they insist the story is true and their towns have no connection to the Middle East.

"Please don't associate our town's name with that of Baghdad, Iraq," the Bagdad, Ariz., Web site instructs. "It had nothing to do with Iraq."

So how do you explain the Sultans, the Bagdad High School mascot?

Principal Glen Hadlock, 54, said it's better than the former name: Bagdad Thieves.

In Bagdad, Ariz., the major employer is Phelps Dodge Bagdad, a copper mine with 400 workers. The remote town of about 1,500 some 40 miles west of Prescott hasn't gone unnoticed since U.S. forces rolled into Iraq.

"We've had a lot of interest from Europeans wanting to come over here and take pictures," said Ken Vaughn, corporate communications manager at the mine. "We are turning them down because we just don't have time to deal with that."

Despite the attention brought by the war, there are no plans to change the proud Bagdad name in Kentucky. About 40 miles east of Louisville, Bagdad contains houses, a post office, two general stores, the feed company and a bank.

It's also the birthplace of former Gov. Martha Layne Collins.

"It's stayed Bagdad this long, I don't think we want to change it now," said Tucker, adding that plenty of American flags fly in Bagdad.

"We support the war," he said.

Farther south, Bagdad, La., survives only as a cemetery -- the sole reminder of the sawmill community and final resting place of impressionist painter W.C. Ousley.

Bagdad, Texas, hasn't fared much better. It was folded into Leander, but the Bagdad Elementary School and Bagdad Cemetery remain.

In California, there isn't even a sign to mark Bagdad, now just a dot on a map. The nearest reference is Bagdad Cafe, 50 miles west in Newberry Springs, where the 1988 Jack Palance movie of the same name was filmed.

This Bagdad is nothing more than salt cedar trees and creosote bushes along Route 66 roughly 20 miles east of Ludlow. It is home only to a weather record few covet -- from Oct. 3, 1912, to Nov. 8, 1914, not a drop of rain fell, marking the longest drought in U.S. history.

John Crawford, 63, who retired after handling Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway facilities from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, said railroad records show Bagdad found its origins in Iraq.

"It's ... almost bone dry," Crawford said. "That's why they named it Bagdad."

The community withered in the 1970s when traffic moved from Route 66 to Interstate 40, and Crawford can't imagine a Bagdad renaissance, though he thinks it would be a fine place to exile Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"I think right now he'd enjoy it," Crawford said. "He would fit in with the terrain: mean and inhospitable."

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On the Net

Bagdad, Ariz.: bagdad-az.com