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In several English-speaking countries, Niggerhead or nigger head is a mostly no longer current name for several things thought to resemble a black person ("nigger")'s head. Niggerhead was once the official name of the hunting ranch leased by the family of Texas Governer and 2012 Presidential candidate Rick Perry since the 1970s. The "Niggerhead" sign on the Perry property was a private sign, painted in large letters on a large rock that was simply turned over (possibly painted over as well) possibly as late as 2008. Thus reports are that whether painted over, turned over, or both, the Niggerhead rock sign still remains at the entrance of the Perry family ranch. News of the use of Niggerhead by the Perry family was first widely reported on by media in the context of Perry's presidential candidacy.

The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including products such as soap and chewing tobacco, but most often for geographic features such as hills and rocks. In the U.S., more than hundred "Niggerheads" and other place names now considered racially offensive were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.

As a technical term

"Niggerhead" was, among others:

• a former British term for a black iron post for mooring ships, made from an old cannon partially buried muzzle upward, with a slightly oversize black cannonball covering the hole
• a former sailors' term for an isolated coral head, notorious as navigation hazards
• among some American stonemasons, a term for a large smoothly rounded stone
• an antiquated term for a large round rock sticking up from the surface of a logging road, used by loggers and log truck drivers in the Pacific Northwest
• an old U.S. Navy term for a small winch, a Capstan
• a coal miner's term for blackish iron disulfide nodular rock occurring at the top of the coal seams, often visible in coal mine roofs. Because of their density, they can fall from the roofs, injuring or killing the miners below
• an archaic term for the striking weight on a pile driver
• a term for a steam manifold, fountain, turret or header on a boiler, particularly that of a locomotive.
• a name that became synonymous with Texas governor Rick Perry and which marked the end of his 2012 presidential bid as the story of his family hunting camp of the same name reached national attention. <------asshole!

Plants and animals

"Niggerhead" is or was a common name for:

• Carex secta, a tussock grass in New Zealand
• Echinocactus polycephalus, the niggerhead cactus, native to California and Arizona
• Echinacea, or coneflower, colloquially called "Kansas niggerhead" or "wild niggerhead"
• Nasutitermes graveolus, the niggerhead termite, native to Australia
• Rudbeckia hirta, a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae
• hard tussocks in the tundra, esp. in Alaska.

Places

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2011)

"Niggerhead" is part of the name of:

• Nigger Head, an island in North Queensland, Australia.
• a former name of a hunting camp later leased by Texas governor Rick Perry. The ranch was orginally named after Echinocactus polycephalus's (aka cotton top catus) common name, a type of cactus in the area.

References

1. ^ McCrummen, Stephanie (2 October 2011). "At Rick Perry's Texas hunting spot, camp's old racially charged name lingered". Washington Post. Retrieved 2 October 2011.