County commissioners give OK for lake name change
Lost Coon Lake is southwest of Whitefish and is about 61 acres in size. There is no public access to the lake. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot file)
The Flathead County Commissioners last week gave their OK to change the name of a lake located near Whitefish that contains a racial slur.
A Flathead County District Court judge last year ruled in favor or granting a petition to rename the lake to Lost Loon Lake. The City of Whitefish, on behalf of property owners around the lake, filed a petition with the court seeking to change the name from its current designation of Lost Coon Lake.
That petition has now made its way to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which reached out to the county commissioners asking for their recommendation on renaming the lake.
The BGN is responsible for standardizing the geographic names for use by the federal government and accepts proposals affecting the official names of geographic features.
In an email from BGN representatives to the county, BGN says because it places importance on local opinion when it votes on a proposal it asks for the recommendations from local governments that might have an interest in the proposal.
County commissioners unanimously voted to recommend the proposed name.
The name Lost Loon Lake comes because loons have returned to the lake in the last few years after Whitefish Lake Golf Club placed a nesting platform on the lake to encourage the birds to establish there.
“Locals and visitors alike consider the name Lost Coon Lake extremely offensive, as its history and meaning are easily discovered,” the city wrote in its petition to district court seeking the name change.
Neighbors around the lake and others in the community have been working on and off for several years on the effort to rename the lake. About 20 property owners on the lake and the golf club signed onto the petition to change the name.
The lake is roughly 61 acres in size and does not have public access.
The history of the name of the lake is difficult to pinpoint.
According to the book “Stump Town to Ski Town” on the history of Whitefish, it was originally called “Nigger Lake.”
An article in the Pilot in February of 1964 says that the name of the lake was to be changed to Lodgepole Pond after polling property owners because the lake had no official name on maps.
An article in the Daily Inter Lake in 1984, however, reported an account that a developer changed the name to Lost Coon Lake.