More Odd Search Requests That Pointed to This Blog

Every so often I look at what WordPress.com tells me about searches that have led people to my blog. I’ve mentioned some of these odd requests before.

Most of the search requests relate to topics along the Oregon Trail or in the California Gold Rush era. I can tell when someone has been assigned a classroom paper on the Oregon Trail and decides to write about Catherine Sager or Katrina Belknap. Lots of people seem curious about the role of women in the Gold Rush years, though some are more interested in mining methods such as panning and sluicing. Some readers have looked at my haunting book reviews—I hope they’ve then bought the books.

Here are a few of the more unusual recent searches that have made me chuckle:

jim the wonder dog museum

flat stanley wearing shorts

licorice ice cream baskin robbins

barbie magic house

Even though these searches are amusing, at least I can understand why they led to my blog. I have written about these topics or related notions. I’ll let you copy and paste these search requests to find the relevant posts. (But you’ll have to paste them into a web browser—using the search box on this blog won’t work because some of the search terms are not exactly what I wrote about).

There was one frequent search request that stopped me cold—I had no idea how this was related to my blog:

the snake called kganyapa

I didn’t even know what a “kganyapa” was, so how could I have written about it?

So, of course, I searched for the term myself. A “kganyapa” is a mythical river snake believed to drown passersby. Well, I’ve never written about river snakes, but I have written about the Snake River.  The post that a search for “kganyapa” surfaces first is this one.

I’d post a picture of a kganyapa if I could, but the mythical snake is too shy to be photographed. So you’ll have to be satisfied with a 19th century depiction of the Snake River at Three Island Crossing.

3 island crossing snake plate52

When have you been surprised by something you came across on the internet? (that you can write about on a family-oriented blog)

Posted in History, Writing and tagged , , , .