# 47 Egyptian Names
A number of Arkansas towns trace their biblical names to the African nation of Egypt. The Washington County town of Goshen, for example, which has hosted a Methodist campground for almost two centuries, is named for the northern part of Egypt where the Hebrew slaves toiled until making their escape in the Exodus. In Craighead County, a farming town formed around the year 1900, and some merchants wanted to give it the hopeful name of Promised Land. But the area had already been called Egypt for many years, allegedly because its agricultural wealth resembled the legendary riches of Ancient Egypt, and so it remained. Ernie Deane quotes a letter from the descendent of an early resident of Egypt who, also noting nearby Canaan Creek, aptly wrote, “Our ancestors gave some thought to Bible reading.”
Indeed they did!
Daniel Boice
University of Arkansas at Monticello