Hardscrabble Explained

Hardscrabble or Hard Scrabble is land that is rocky or of poor quality, as in the term hardscrabble farm. It is often used as a euphemism for any sort of hard working or poverty, as in hardscrabble childhood. A number of towns use this name:

• Hardscrabble (Harrisburg), Pennsylvania, a former neighborhood in Midtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Hardscrabble, California, now Ione, California
• Hardscrabble, Colorado, an extinct town in Colorado
• Hardscrabble, Illinois, now Streator, Illinois
• Hardscrabble, Indiana, a town in Indiana
• Hardscrabble, New York, now Farmingdale, New York
• Hardscrabble, Ohio
• Hardscrabble, Ontario, a village incorporated into the town of Hamilton, Ontario, today's Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
• Hardscrabble, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Highland County, Virginia
• Hardscrabble, West Virginia, now Scrabble, West Virginia
• Hardscrabble or Hard Scrabble, Wisconsin, now Hazel Green (town), Wisconsin
• Hard Scrabble and Snow Town, two African-American neighborhoods in 19th-century Providence, Rhode Island
• Hardscrabble Canyon, in the Wet Mountains, in Colorado
• Hardscrabble Pass, in Colorado
• Hardscrabble Peak, in Montana
• Hardscrabble River, the estuary of Wilson Stream, a small river in Washington County, Maine

Historic sites

• Hardscrabble, a log cabin built by Ulysses S. Grant, now located at Grant's Farm, Grantwood Village, Missouri
• Hardscrabble (Bahama, North Carolina), a historic plantation house
• Hardscrabble Farm, an historic farm property and Greek Revival farmhouse in rural Searsmont, Maine

Other uses

• Hardscrabble, a 2012 electronic music album by The Flashbulb
• Hardscrabble Open (also known as the Hardscrabble Women's Invitation), a golf tournament played at the Hardscrabble Golf Club (also known as the Hardscrabble Country Club) in Fort Smith, Arkansas from 1945 to 1953; it was an official LPGA Tour event from 1948 to 1950