Nobody’s quite sure how Huyclask got its name. One of the old matrons had a mind to figure out a few years back, and she did some real research but it all came up smoke in the end as these things often do.

Seems that the town founder, Earl Smitham, had bought the land that first became a farm and later a trading post from one Mr. Clavius DeWitt. But even then it was know as Huyclask Hold, and Smitham had written to his family back east that his inquiry about the name was met by a simple reply: “it was named that when I bought it.” DeWitt himself claimed to have bought the land from a man named Richat.

In the course of her research, that town matron was unable to find any record of a man named Clavius DeWitt or anyone with the surname of Richat. Those misty days being somewhat fast and loose with the letter of the law, there was nothing sinister in the oversight; most likely both DeWitt and Richat had been itinerants or otherwise rootless. The researcher was forced to accept the same conclusion as Earl Smitham: “it was named that when I bought it.”

That explanation stood until the day Sandy Huyclask arrived at the old five and dime downtown.