A Landmark by Any Other Name Requires State’s Approval in Alaska

A fisherman’s pet dog dies; dead blackfish are found floating on a lake; a college student loses his skiff in a storm; British paratroopers scale an Alaskan peak.

Those are some of the events that inspired requests from people who want the state of Alaska to name a lake, stream, creek, island, mountain or some other landmark in honor of someone or something.

Don Lallemand from the state of Washington buried his dog, Mitzi, on an unnamed Southeast Alaska island 12 years ago. He wrote the State Geographic Board in 1986 asking that the two-acre island be named in honor of Mitzi.

“We buried a small dog who had traveled with us for years aboard the boat and loved the area as much as we do,” he wrote.

Plants Flowers, Trees

Lallemand included a picture showing the sign he posted on the island, naming it for Mitzi. He plants flowers and trees near the grave site every year.

But Lallemand has not heard anything from the state board in the two years since he submitted his request. “We’re very disappointed,” he says.

He is not alone.

The board has almost 100 requests on file, waiting for action.

The board last met in August. Before that, it met in March, 1985.

“We are swamped,” says Gladyce Williamson, secretary to the board.

Williamson serves as secretary to the state community and regional affairs commissioner, who chairs the geographic board. She said there is no extra staff for the board and she must process the applications while also handling her regular duties for the commissioner.

The eight-member board, composed of state officials and one public appointee, reviewed 10 requests at the August meeting. “The federal people had really been pushing and really wanted some action on the oldest cases,” Williamson says.

Cases Go Back for Years

The oldest cases date back six or seven years, she says.

All recommendations from the state board go to the U.S. Domestic Geographic Names Board for final approval.

One of the priority cases was a request from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to name a mountain near the interior Brooks Range for a federal geologist. His name is Reuben Kachadoorian. For ease of pronunciation, Williamson said, the Corps proposed Reuben’s Peak.

Most requests come from individuals, not government agencies. Some landowners get upset when the board refuses to allow them to name features on their own property.

A home-site owner had asked that a lake southwest of Fairbanks be named for dead blackfish found floating on the surface. His nomination of Deadfish Lake was deferred by the board.

Homesteaders north of Anchorage want to pick their own name for a small lake on their property. “We felt it was not only our responsibility to the community, but also our privilege to name a feature on our property,” they wrote in their nominating letter.

Unexpected Requests

The backlog of nominations includes the expected personal requests such as Otto’s Lake and Moore’s Mountain, and some unexpected ones.

In 1985 a 24-year-old college student from the Lower 48 wrote a sad tale of losing--and finding--a skiff while crab fishing in the Aleutian Islands.

His crew lost their skiff in a storm and then recovered it. “Now, when we happen to anchor at this cove, we affectionately refer to it as Skiff Cove.”

The board also deferred action on Skiff Cove.

Williamson said nominations must meet certain criteria to win the board’s approval. Commemorative names get the most thorough review.

- The person for whom the feature is to be named must be dead at least one year.

- The application must include a biography and the person’s length of stay in Alaska.

- The nomination must have local support and the native corporation in the area must be consulted.

“The person must have made a substantial contribution to a city or the state or their rural area,” Williamson says.

Some commemorative requests appear to fall a little short of that criterion.

A small creek northeast of Fairbanks has been nominated as Pete Bloom Pup, after a trapper who killed himself in 1937.

The nominating letter and a 1937 newspaper article accompanying the request said Pete Bloom had fallen into the ice and knew that, even if he lived, he would lose his hands and feet to frostbite. “He took a snare and put it around his neck and then attached it to his dog sled. He then told his dogs to mush, thereby choking himself to a fast death.”

Dangerous Lake

A Kenai Peninsula resident wants the board to name a lake in the Kenai National Moose Range as Dangerous Lake. The person had once found a cow moose near the lake, killed by a bear, and must have figured that it was a dangerous spot to be.

A Fairbanks resident wants a waterway near the Dalton Highway named Solitude Creek.

“This wayward wandering hall of wonder does not entertain the aspects of fear, only unpolluted silence. This is a fitting name as it will no doubt draw others who will be searching for that very avenue of adventure.”

An Anchorage resident nominated Tranquility Lake northwest of town.

A Kenai resident likes the name of the Greek goddess of the sea.

Giving a lesson in mythology, the person wrote: “Thetis, the mother of Achilles, saved him by hanging onto his foot and the lake is shaped like a foot.” Therefore, he proposes the name Lake Thetis.

Never mind that Thetis is also the Kenai man’s first name.

Pegasus Peak Proposed

A 12,060-foot peak in Denali National Park was scaled in 1956 by members of a British parachute regiment. The regiment’s symbol is Pegasus, the flying horse.

Although the regiment may have named the peak in their honor, the federal review board in 1985 rejected Pegasus Peak. The State Geographic Board still has the file open.

Tired of Butterfly Lake and Butterfly Creek, of which there are several in the state, one nominee suggested the French name for the insect--Papillon Pond.

Even children get into the act. “My daughter thought of the name after my mustache and a moose,” said a proud parent in asking that the state name a small lake Moosestache Lake.