The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-11-25
r. w. HITCHCOCK in
The Hibbing Tribune

| Believe IL or not, Dut 81. Louis county
has 478 meandered lakes and Of
lthem-their name is Mud!
On what a rare flight of imagination
must the poetic soul of the manner Of
lakes have scared when he christeneo
these Mud Lakes. DOUBTLESS he gazeo
with emotion on the lakes silvery sur
face, he marveled at its exquisite rip
pling and darkening in the evening
breeze, or he looked into it's limpiC
depths and saw there reflected the per.
feet blue of the northern sky. He
thrilled to the beauty of the lake, anG
he exclaimed in ecstacy, "Thy name is
Mud!"
st. Louis leads the state and next is
Ottertail with 439. Itasca is third with
1856; Cook and Lake run a close race
with 301 and 800 respectively; Becker
has 281, Cas- 244 and Crow Wing 227
In addition there are 10 boundary
lakes in St. Louis county, namely:
Rainy, Namekin, Sand Point, Little Ver-
million, Loon, LaCroix, Bottle, Iron,
Crooked and Superior.
The word "meander," Mr.. Noah Web
ster informs us, is from the Greek,
Maiandros, the name of a stream with
many windings, and meandered lakes,
we take 1t, are lakes whose windings
have been surveyed or estimated.
Ottertail county, it is claimed, has
several hundred lakes in addition to
F., its 439 meandered lakes, about 1000 all
told, and st. Louis county probably
has 1900 lakes or more.
What wonder that Minnesota is the
Land of Ten Thousand Lakes!
Can anyone imagine what Minnesota
would be without its ten thousand lakes,
each one more beautiful than the
other?
Well, for one thing we wouldn't have
our roads all cluttered up with cars
from Ioway. The tourist business
would sicken and die, and we'd have
to stay at home and go to church on
Sundays instead of going to the lake
and the state of life therein would be-
come pretty drab, stale, flat and un-
interesting.
About one-third, perhaps more, of
the lakes of the state have no names,
and for the most part we can't say
much for the names that the other
two-thirds have.
Great minds in Minnesota certainly
run in the same channels when it came
to naming the lakes for there are SO
Long Lakes, 81 Mud Lakes, 76 Rice
Lakes, 43, Bass Lakes, etc.
Spring, Turtle, Grass, Duck, Fish,
| Island, Goose, HorShoe and Silver lakes
are scattered over the state in great
profuSion.
The descendants of Eric the Red and
Lief the Lucky, have given us Swede,
Sweden, Scandinavian, Ole, Peterson,
Nelson, Matttson, Olson, Hanson, john
son, Knutson and Larson lakes a.
plenty.
The Irish, bedad, are holding up their
end with O'Brien lakes, OIeary lakes,
Murphy, Sullivan, Riley, Shannon, Dun
nigan, Kelly and Ryan lakes.
Some one whose genius must have
lain in his stomach, perhaps named
the Coffee, Sugar, Sandwich, Potato,
Ham, Egg, Lobster, Cranberry, Plum
and Pie lakes.
Rum, Whiskey and Bootleg lakes still
defy the eighteenth amendment.
We hate to think of the disposition
Of the fellow who named Sinking lake,
Devils lake, Dead Fish, Dead Horse,
Dead Man, Pigs Eye and Dirty Nose
lakes.
History reveals itself in DeSota, Plan
tagnette, LaSalle, Hennepin, Calhoun,
Sibley, Traverse and many other lakes.
The poet contributed Sunset, Albion,
Sylvan, Echo, Marine, Mirage, Alpine,
Elkhorn and Carnelian.
But the Indian supplied the most
picturesque names of all-Pokegama,
Wabano, Winona, Minnetonka, Kabe-
togama and Winnibigosh.
The largest of the Great Lakes, SUI
perior, leaves the shore of Minnesota
and next to the Great Lakes, Mime
sofas Red Lake is the largest lake on
the continent.
| Mile Laos is not thousand lakes
but one lake and the Lake of Thous-
and Isles falls short by about 994 isles
| A few years ago we thought we
ought to have law giving some central
authority in each county, the district
bench to be exact, the right to study
the names of the lakes of each county
eliminate the Implications and change
the names of lakes upon petition with
due consideration for historical signifi-
canoe, custom and public feeling.
But some fellow down in Goodhue
county which has four lakes and an
other fellow over in Benton county
which has one lake, aided and abetteo
by two fellows in Winona and Traverse
counties which have two lakes, each
raised such row because they were