Name change to lake Calhoun? (Ramsey, Wells: schools, live in, budget)

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by srsmn

Can I point out that to those of you calling John C. Calhoun an 'insignificant historical figure'....you're wrong. That's coming from a guy with a BA in History.

Calhoun was part of the Great Triumvirate of political thinkers (along with Webster and Clay) who by-and-large shaped national policy from the 1830's-1850's. The different ideologies of these three men precipitated the Civil War.

Thanks- it's not that I've never heard of or read about John C. Calhoun, more that I had no idea and probably wouldn't have guessed that it's named for him. There is a Calhoun Lake that I am familiar with in West Central MN (next to Green Lake), and being a transplant to the area, for all I knew it was just as likely to have been named after a prominent local family that lived in the area or donated land around the lake (and actually, the area does have a number of examples of things being very randomly named- for instance, how the Camden area came to get its name if anyone's familiar).

Does anyone know why he was chosen to name the lake after (e.g. what's the connection)?

[uptown_urbanist]

^ Calhoun was the Secretary of War who sent people to survey the area for/around Fort Snelling. The surveyors named the lake for him, since he was the boss.

[Civic]

Oh yeah any regular joe/jane out there knows about him. No, wait may be we should ask first how many of them can sing their national anthem.... Significance my foot.

[audadvnc]

Just because people don't know their history does not mean that history is not important.

[xandrex]

I remember when I looked up Lake Calhoun on Wikipedia for whatever reason and saw that it was named after John Calhoun. I then read up on him and saw that he was a slavery opponent, which sort of surprised me that we named a lake after him (of course, not because of his slavery stance).

However, I can't imagine the name being changed. It shouldn't. What WOULD be call it? And even if it did change, none of the locals would call it anything but Lake Calhoun. Not to mention the expense of pointlessly changing out signs and changing road names.

[Oildog]

What a potential waste of government time and resources.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

This whole fiasco kind of reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where it is discovered that the founder of the town, Jebediah Springfield, was actually an evil pirate named Huns Sprungfeld. Anybody remember that?

[rogead]

If we want to continue on the PC quest, we could also point out that Ramsey county was named after a governor who advocated for the eradication of the Sioux people.

[west336]

Originally Posted by Slig

This whole fiasco kind of reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where it is discovered that the founder of the town, Jebediah Springfield, was actually an evil pirate named Huns Sprungfeld. Anybody remember that?

Another Simpsons reference tonight (the other was on Skyscraperpage.com)......sweet! I can't get enough of those! I do remember this episode! Lisa found out Jebediah Springfield was a "murderous pirate", and the marketing folks who were talking to Long John Silvers were apparently disgusted by this revelation! hahahah!

[MN55]

Seriously, what are they gonna name it? Lake Wellstone?

Shoot me now.