Blue Spur

Blue Spur is the name of two geographic areas in New Zealand.

Westland District

The first one is situated close to the Westland District's largest town, Hokitika. It stretches from the Tasman Sea in the west about 12 km (7.5 mi) eastwards towards the area of Humphreys and the Blue Spur Range.[1] It can be accessed by road along the "Blue Spur Tourist Drive" from the center of Hokitika. During the late 1860s, the time of the West Coast Gold Rush, "The Spur" (as the locals always called it) was inhabited by more than 2,500 people. There was a school, several hotels, busy bars and a theater. Since around the year 2000 the area is gradually being rediscovered and repopulated as it offers rural living close to town.

Clutha District

The second place named "Blue Spur" is the area of the historic Otago Gold Rush town and gold mining fields near the town of Lawrence, Clutha District, Otago, New Zealand.[2]

Name

The etymology of the term "blue spur" not well known. The gold diggers of the 1860s gold rush went after the gold "on the spur", i.e. in a great hurry/rush. Alluvial gold may often be found close to a layer of blueish clay. Miners frequently talk about mining down to the "blue clay", thus a "blue spur" could somehow elucidate the hasty process of digging for the gold pursuing a blueish layer of clay. Other potential meanings could refer to a blueish color of mountains ("blue mountains") as it can be spotted in certain light at distant mountains at both locations. Besides these gold rush related connotations we know about a "blue spur flower" (Plectranthus ciliatus), and the "blue spur" in coats of arms.[3]

gollark: *Why* are you calling it thousands of times? Have you tried doing it fewer times?
gollark: Strange coincidence-or-probably-not-actually-coincidence-for-some-weird-physics-reason, that.
gollark: I suppose it does look the same as the Newtonian gravity formula if you swap out the variables.
gollark: ... isn't that electromagnetic stuff? Why would you want that?
gollark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes%E2%80%93Hut_simulation

References
  1. Blue Spur States Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Lawrence Archived January 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Red Flag Archived September 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

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