Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Most of this was first written on the old Sticks of Fire site.

Some want to know why “Sticks of Fire?” What does it mean? Where can I buy some? Since the question has been asked a couple times, I thought I would address it this afternoon.

The word “Tampa” comes from the Calusa (sometimes spelled Caloosa) Indians. The Calusa Indians lived here until being virtually wiped out by explorers (and their diseases) between 1500 and into the 1800’s. They called this place Tanpa, which means “sticks of fire.” Some think that this refers to the abundance of kindling and driftwood along the Hillsborough river, but I agree with those that say it is a reference to the constant barrage of lightning storms in the area. Yes, Tampa Bay is known as the lightning capital of the US. When the white people came and took this land from the Indians, they had a difficult time pronouncing Tanpa, so they changed the N to an M.

So that’s where the name of this website came from. What am I doing here?

Many weblogs currently focus on national politics and news. The plan for this blog is to chronicle news items of varying interest to Tampa Bay in general, and Tampa in particular. Some have taken to calling local-focus blogs “urblogs.”

In addition to news items, this Tampa blog also offers trivial and historical tidbits about the area as well. We’ll see how all of that goes. If you have any questions about the Tampa area, whether current or historical, forward them to me via tommyduncnATTyahooDOTTcom, and if I don’t know the answer right away, I’ll have a good time learning about it.

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