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Is King’s Contrivance Epic?

 



I don’t know what I was expecting when I went to YouTube looking for local stories this morning but I most certainly didn’t expect to find this.



The Chronicles of the Kingdom of King’s Contrivance, Arthur Kunkle, YouTube

I don’t know Mr. Kunkle but it looks like he had a lot of fun with this piece, which he describes as a mock-epic local history.

Every great kingdom has a founding legend. Rome had a she-wolf. Camelot had a sword in a stone. The Kingdom of King's Contrivance, a village in Columbia, Maryland, has a restaurant.

A mock-epic (and affectionate) history of King's Contrivance: colonial land tracts with names like "Lost by Neglect" and "Mistake", the 1962 restaurant of Kingdon Gould Jr.

(King", we are told), James Rouse's quiet purchase of a tenth of Howard County, a village proclaimed in 1973 and postponed indefinitely in 1974, three neighborhoods named for folk songs, Carl Sandburg and Emily Dickinson, and a royal marketplace with a line of succession of grocery stores.

The tone is parody; the facts are real. Sources are below.

The sources are well-documented, right down to the musical score. A tip of the hat to Kunkle for showing his workings, as the Brits say. And then he chooses to use an AI-generated voice. Augh!

I’d love to know what inspired this Savage, Maryland resident to put this video together. Will there be more to come?  Nota bene: I can’t endorse it whole-heartedly as far as historical accuracy is concerned because this isn’t my field of expertise and I haven’t even tried to check his sources. 

It sure is fun, though. I’m interested in your thoughts.


Village Green/Town² Comments 


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  1. Julia A. McCreadyOctober 11, 2026 at 4:06 AM

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