Today is International Tongue Twister Day. I grew up in a small town named Woodburn and our favorite tongue twister was "How much wood would Woodburn burn if Woodburn would burn wood?" You may have heard something similar about woodchucks but ours was better. Interestingly, historically, Woodburn burned quite a lot of wood. When those first enterprising immigrants from Germany came to what was then the 'Great Black Swamp' east of Fort Wayne, they realized that there was some potentially really good farm land if they could drain the swamp. So they started cutting trees, lots and lots of trees. Some they used for houses, some they burned in smudge pots inside and outside those houses to keep the voracious mosquitoes away, and some they burned in huge piles as they cleared the land. Eventually they burned more trees to fire the first kilns built in the area to make drainage tiles so they could drain that swamp land to grow better crops. So, how much wood did Woodburn burn? Enough to get named for the endeavor.
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