Claim: In American discourse, the term "podunk" came into general colloquial use through the wide national readership of the "Letters from Podunk" of 1846, in the Daily National Pilot of Buffalo, New York and gained general use as standing for a real place.
Evidence: The term gained currency as standing for a fictional place. The terms podunk and Podunk Hollow in American English denote or describe an insignificant, out-of-the-way, or even completely fictitious town.