Unlikely Spot For Arctic Tongue Twisters

CANNON BEACH, Ore. - Alaskans have a name for people who pronounce "Tanana" as if it rhymed with "banana." They call them "Cheechakos," a derisive term applied to newcomers to the state.

But in Cannon Beach, where more than a dozen streets - including Tanana Avenue - sport Alaska place names, there are people who have lived here half their lives and still can't get it right.

"Most people here just say, `tuh-NAH-nuh,' " says Cannon Beach historian George Shields, mocking his banana-rhyming neighbors. "I don't even try to fight it anymore. It's more work than it's worth."

Shields, 62, was born in Cannon Beach and has spent most of his life here. As a great-great-nephew of William and Mark Warren - some of the area's earliest homesteaders - he is one of the few locals who know why the names of streets south of Haystack Rock sound like an Alaskan dog-sled team.

Beginning with Chena Avenue on the north, the list of streets and avenues follows with: Yukon, Chilkoot, Gogona, Tok, Gulcana, Tanana, Nabesna, Matanuska, Nelchena, Susitna, Chisana and Delta. In a subdivision a few blocks south, the list is rounded out with Kenai, Noatak, Sitka and Tolovana Mainline.

With so many Northwest place names taken from indigenous languages of the immediate area, Shields sees how obscure words originating thousands of miles away can confuse people.

Even "Kenai," which takes its name from a popular sports-fishing river not far from Anchorage, has confused a few. Many pronounce it "kuh-nye," rhyming it with the Hawaiian word, "lanai." But as any sourdough knows, Kenai bears a closer resemblance to "Levi."

So, who to blame for all these Arctic tongue twisters?

Shields points the accusing finger at his great-great-uncles the Warrens, two of the original homesteaders of Tolovana Park, and, incidentally, nephews of Warrenton founder Daniel K. Warren.

According to a yellowed old deed in Shields' scrapbook, the Warrens bought a quarter section, or 160 acres, of property near the present-day Tolovana Inn in 1897. The document is signed by an undersecretary of President William McKinley.

Afterwards, William and possibly Mark (Shields isn't sure about the latter) headed north for the Klondike Gold Rush. William, a licensed river boat pilot, made his money there ferrying gold miners up and down the meandering rivers of Alaska's interior.

When he got back to Oregon, he and Mark surveyed their property, laid out the streets and platted the lots. Many of the streets - for example, Tanana, Susitna and Nabesna - were named after rivers in the Alaska interior. The name given to the area, Tolovana Park, was taken from a hot springs near Fairbanks.

Which brings us back to the Tanana issue:

Tanana Avenue, two blocks of tarmac connecting Hemlock Street to the beach, takes its name from a major tributary of the Yukon River. Tanana is also the name of a tiny Athabascan Indian village about an hour's plane flight west of Fairbanks.

Locally, the word has probably been Cannon Beach-inized beyond repair. But for the record: Tanana is properly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, like "Panama."