Vader, Washington

The town called Vader has been trying to reclaim its original name for over a century. The community was first called Little Falls, for a small cascade on Olequa Creek, and incorporated under that name in January of nineteen oh six. The problem was that the Northern Pacific Railroad already served a Little Falls in Minnesota, and it refused to honor the Washington name on its schedules.

After a dispute, in which the railroad renamed the station Sopenah and a second proposed name was also taken, residents settled on a compromise: the town would be renamed for Martin Vader, a German-born Civil War veteran who was among the early settlers. The legislature made it official on March twenty-fifth, nineteen thirteen. Residents put the name back to a vote in two thousand five and again in two thousand fifteen.

Both times, they voted to stay Vader, though without any connection to the fictional dark lord, since the character did not exist until nineteen seventy-seven.