Lake Los Angeles, which is even more...

Lake Los Angeles, which is even more obscure than the Los Angeles River, is beginning to make news.

The man-made lake, built in 1967, has been dry since a developer drained it in 1981.

That’s one reason why some of the 14,000 residents of the community of Lake Los Angeles want to change their town’s name.

Then, too, Lake L.A. is about 65 miles from the real El Lay. It’s in the Antelope Valley.

Some want to rename it Wilsona, the name of an early-century ranch there. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the spread was not so dubbed to honor a tennis racquet, but President Woodrow Wilson.

Whatever, Lake L.A. went prime-time the other day when radio broadcaster Paul Harvey (no relation) mentioned its identity crisis on his syndicated show, adding that Antelope Valley doesn’t have any antelopes, either.

Amidst all the agonizing reappraisals, the lake isn’t being shunned.

“We’re planning a beach party there in May,” said Colleen Green of the Chamber of Commerce. “We’ll have everything but the water.”

Lake L.A. shouldn’t feel self-conscious about changing its name, especially in Southern California, where communties and entertainment personalities alike often do the same.

Dairy Valley, Shatto City, Sherman and Owensmouth are known today as Cerritos, Avalon, West Hollywood and Canoga Park, respectively.

Willmore, which went bankrupt before the turn of the century, has prospered under its current identity, Long Beach.

And the 19th-Century community of Morocco has also turned out well since it began using the name Beverly Hills.

The big question is: If Lake L.A. follows suit, will the Los Angeles Lakers take the hint?

Might we suggest the Inglewood Great Westerns?

The recipient of a $1 Brownie camera on his eighth birthday in 1900, George Watson snapped a photo of the state capital in Denver. A local camera dealer borrowed the photo, which the youngster also had developed and printed, and hung it in his window with the sign:

“If an 8-Year-Old Boy Can Make a Picture Like This, So Can You!”

Bigger honors were to be befall Watson (1892-1978), a pioneer newspaper photographer in L.A. who took the first aerial photos of the town in 1919, back when it was known as L.A.

The latest tribute is the display of Watson’s ancient Graflex camera at “The American Journalism” exhibit at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Watson’s six nephews also enjoyed illustrious careers in L.A. as child actors and later as photographers and cameramen.

“My brother Harry played W. C. Fields’ son in ‘The Barber Shop,’ ” nephew Delmar Watson recalled the other day.

“Fields had Harry carry his gin for him during the filming, disguised as a prop.”

The fun never stops in the City of Industry. Not only does Industry host the Great Snail Festival at the end of the month, it follows up that extravaganza a week later with armadillo races at the Industry Hills Equestrian Center.

Or is that equestrian races at the Armadillo Center?

A downtown office worker reports that it took her 75 minutes to drive from Woodland Hills to the Civic Center Tuesday morning.

That’s seven minutes more than it took the pilot of that SR-71 jet to fly from Palmdale to Washington. Of course, the pilot was traveling against the rush-hour traffic.