> And then there's Fort Pierce, Fla. which began as a small settlement where a fort was planned. There is no record that the fort ever was built, but the name stuck.
>
> Nashville, Tennessee began as Fort Nashbourgh. The Fort was dropped and bourgh was changed to ville because they didn't want to mix French and English.

While we're on the subject of weird place name origins and Forts, how about Fort Valley, Georgia? A quick web search came up with several sites mentioning the origin of the town's name; I've linked one below. And I quote:

"Originally, it was known as Fox Valley, apparently because fox hunting became popular in the area. In 1825, an application to create a U.S. post office in Fox Valley was sent to Washington, D.C., where postal authorities misread 'Fox Valley' as 'Fort Valley.' With the post office now officially known as Fort Valley, local residents accepted the name change. In Feb. 1854, the legislature incorporated Fort Valley."

-- codeman"it must have taken some fort-itude"38