ENSIGN - Named for Josiah Davis Ensign
Archive of J.D. Ensign's papers
Magazine of Western History, Volume 9 - Josiah Davis Ensign

FENSKE - named for August J. Fenske of Ely, MN, who is said to have built the first frame building in the fall of 1887. Also owned a hardware store.

Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota Lakes and Streams database. Search for a lake, and the site will display some historical discussion.

WINCHELL - Alexander Winchell was professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Michigan, director of the Michigan Geological Survey, and chancellor of Syracuse University, but he was most noted as a popular lecturer and writer on scientific topics and as a Methodist layman who worked to reconcile traditional religious beliefs to nineteenth-century developments in the fields of evolutionary biology, cosmology, geology, and paleontology.

Winchell Family
Alexander Winchell Papers, 1883-1891

GABRO - Named for the rocks found on its shores.

GREENWOOD (Lake County) - George C. Greenwood who was a hardware merchant in Duluth. His company, G.C. Greenwood and Company, Wholesale and Retail Hardware, later became Marshall-Wells.

FARM & GARDEN - Ojibwe had cultivated ground adjoining them

FRASER - John Fraser selected timber lands and engaged in lumbering.

John Fraser Obituary Duluth Herald July 1912

THOMAS - Maurice Thomas selected timber lands and engaged in lumbering.

OGISHKE MUNCIE - somewhat changed from its Ojibwe name, meaning "a kingfisher," spelled ogishkimanissi by Frederic Baraga's Dictionary

CACAQUABIC or KEKEQUABIC - translated by Gilfillan as "Hawk-iron lake"

IMA - named in honor of the eldest daughter of Prof. N. H. Winchell, the state geologist.

Newton Horace Winchell

SNOWBANK - a translation of it's Ojibwe name, which means, as Gilfillan defined it, "snow blown up in heaps lying about here and there"

MANOMIN - Ojibwe name, meaning "wild rice"

PIPE, ELBOW, TRIANGLE and URN - whose names were suggested by their outlines.

NEWTON - named by Dr. Alexander Winchell in honor of his brother, Newton Horace Winchell (see both men above)

BRULE - Brulé, the French word meaning "burnt". One of the islands of Brule Lake is called Tamarack Island, for an old Ojibwe, John Tamarack, who lived on it. Brule River, called Wisacod by Norwood, is given by Gilfillan as "Wissakode zibi or Half-burnt-wood river.

CLEARWATER (Cook County) - From the Ojibwe name Ga-wakomitigweiag sagaiigun, or Clearwater lake.

MONKER - Claus C. Monker, a Norwegian homesteader on its south side, who was later a fisherman, living in Grand Marais.

ROSE - Ojibwe, "Rose lake is Ga-bagwadjiskiwagag sagaiigun, or the shallow lake with mud bottom."

MESABI - marks the eastern extension of the Mesabi Iron Range. This Ojibwe name was given on Joseph N. Nicollet's map in 1843 as "Missabay Heights." It has been spelled in several ways, Mesabi being its form in the reports and maps of the Minnesota Geological Survey. Gilfillan translated it as "Giant mountain," with an additional note: "Missabe is a giant of immense size and a cannibal. This is his mountain, consequently the highest, biggest mountain." Winchell wrote of it, "The Chippewas at Grand Portage represent Missabe as entombed in the hills near there, the various hills representing different members of his body." Gunflint and North Lakes lie in the course of continuation of the Mesabi Range, about ten miles north from the range of the Misquah Hills, with which it is parallel.

GUNFLINT - named from flint or chert obtained in its rocks, also occurring abundantly as pebbles of its beaches, sometimes used for the flintlock guns that long preceded the invention of percussion caps. The English name is translated from the earlier Ojibwe and French names.

HOWARD - was named for one of the Howard brothers, mining prospectors, of Duluth.

PAULSON (aka "JAP") - named for the owner of iron mines near it, on the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railroad, a branch of the Canadian Northern Railway.

SAW BILL and LITTLE SAW BILL - named for a species of duck.

TEMPERANCE - Temperance River was called Kawimbash River by Norwood, of David D. Owen's geological survey, 1848-52, and it retained that name, meaning "deep hollow," in Whittlesey's report, 1866, but it had received its present name in Clark's geological report, 1864, and was so mapped in 1871. Clark explained the origin of the name Temperance as follows: "Most of the streams entering the lake on this shore, excepting when their volumes are swollen by spring or heavy rain floods, are nearly or quite closed at their mouths by gravel, called the bar, thrown up by the lake's waves; this stream, never having a 'bar' at its entrance, to incommode and baffle the weary voyageur in securing a safe landing, is called no bar or Temperance river." Its sources include Temperance Lake, close west of Brule Lake, which has two outlets, the larger flowing east to Brule River, and the other flowing west to Temperance Lake and River

CHEROKEE - as it is named on recent maps, called Ida Belle Lake by the Minnesota Geological Survey, in honor of a daughter of Prof. Alexander Winchell, who became the wife of Horace V. Winchell.

POPLAR - "Poplar river is Ga-manazadika zibi, i.e., place-of-poplars river." Clark in 1864 definitely translated it as "Balm of Gilead," a variety of the balsam poplar, common or frequent along rivers in northeastern Minnesota.

GUST - named for Gust Hagberg, a Swedish homesteader near it.

SUCKER - renamed Lake Christine in honor of the daughter of William J. Clinch, county superintendent of schools, who had a homestead there.

GRANITE - Maraboeuf Lake was called Banks' Pine Lake by Prof. N. H. Winchell in 1880 (Ninth Annual Report, p. 84), for its forest of jack pine (Pinus banksiana), but in the later reports of the Minnesota Geological Survey it is mapped as Granite Lake, for its lying within the area of Saganaga granite.

ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, DELTA, EPSILON, and ZETA - During the examination of this region for the Minnesota Geological Survey, much care was taken to secure correctly the Ojibwe names of the streams and lakes. Their translations were commonly used in that survey, as also by the earlier explorers and fur traders, government surveyors, and lumbermen. But nearly all the lakes of relatively small size lacked aboriginal names, and in many instances remained unnamed. The need for definite description and location of geologic observations led frequently to arbitrary adoption of names, where none before existing could be ascertained. For example, Dr. Alexander Winchell in 1886 gave to six little lakes on the canoe route between Kekequabic and Ogishke Muncie Lakes, occurring within that distance of less than two miles, the names of the first six letters of the Greek alphabet. When farmers and other permanent settlers come, new names will doubtless replace some that have been thus used or proposed without local or historical significance.

BASSWOOD - Dr. Alexander Winchell named in 1886, on the northern limit of the geographic range of this tree, which was generally common throughout Minnesota and was abundant in the Big Woods.

CARP (also called Pseudo-Messer Lake), BIRCH, AND SUCKER (lake county), - Dr. Alexander Winchell named in 1886, named for their fish and trees.

CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps.

KAWISHIWI - an Ojibwe name, meaning, as defined by Gilfillan, "the river full of beavers' houses, or, according to some, muskrats' houses also."

quote Jeemon: "SAW BILL and LITTLE SAW BILL - named for a species of duck."

I'm assuming the Saw bill is referring to the Merganser

KAWASACHONG - The Ojibwe apply the name Kawasachong to this lake, meaning mist or foam lake, referring to the mist and spray rising from rapids and falls of the Kawishiwi River, which descends about 70 feet in a short distance between Garden Lake and Fall Lake. This aboriginal name of the falls and lake, noted by Prof. N. H. Winchell (Geology of Minnesota, vol. 4, p. 408), is in origin and meaning like the French and English names of Rainy Lake and River, and in form it is somewhat like Koochiching, their Cree and Ojibwe name.

KNIFE - having several branches or arms, translated from Mokomani sagaiigun of the Ojibwe. Prof. N. H. Winchell in 1880 wrote of their reason for this name, derived from an adjoining rock formation, "a blue-black, fine-grained siliceous rock, approaching flint in hardness and compactness, with conchoidal fracture and sharp edges; sometimes it is nearly black. It is this sharp-edged rock that gave name to Knife lake. It is only local, or in beds, or sometimes in ridges."

quote Jeemon: "CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps."

My backyard! : )

MOUNTAIN - called Hill Lake by Norwood, translated from its Ojibwe name, given by Gilfillan as "Gatchigudjiwegumag sagaiigun, the lake lying close by the mountain." This refers to Moose Mountain, shown on the Jewett map, at the south side of the east end of this lake.

Mountain Lake, on the international boundary, has Moose Mountain close south of its east end, and Mt. Reunion a mile west of its west end, the latter being a name given for its being a place of meeting for parties on the Minnesota Geological Survey.

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps."

My backyard! : )"

Nice backyard.

STEWART RIVER (lake county) - 1856 John Stewart took a claim.

TOFTE - likewise the name of a township and village, section 21, founded in 1898, is in honor of settlers having this surname, derived from their former home in the district of Bergen, Norway. John Tofte, his twin brother, Andrew, and brothers Torger and Hans O. Engelsen came in 1893; they selected Carlton as the name because the settlement was on the lower slope of Carlton Peak, but the name was in use; thus they named the community for their home in Norway. Edward Toftey came in 1899, opening the first mill and employing over 25 men. Most of the town was destroyed in a forest fire in 1910 and rebuilt; its post office opened in 1897 with Hans Engelsen, postmaster.

CHARLEY and BASHITANEQUEB, the latter renamed on recent maps as Bullis or Gill's Lake, are for an Ojibwe, "Bashitanequeb (Charley Sucker), Indian guide, cook, and canoeman," in this survey (Geology of Minnesota, Final Report, vol. 4, 1899, p. 522, with his portrait).

HUNGRY JACK - refers to an assistant on the government surveys, Andrew Jackson Scott, a veteran of the Civil War, who for some time at this lake was reduced to very scanty food supplies.

Cow Tongue Point, as named in the Minnesota Geological Survey, a half mile southwest of Kimball Creek, is more commonly known as Scott's Point, for Andrew Jackson Scott, who is commemorated also by Hungry Jack Lake in this county, before noted.

LUTSEN - was named by its most prominent citizen, Carl A. A. Nelson, for a town in Prussian Saxony, made memorable by the battle there, 1632, in which the renowned Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, lost his life. The village in section 33 has had a post office since 1890. It is known for it resorts and ski lodges.

MEEDS - was named in honor of Alonzo D. Meeds of Minneapolis, who was an assistant in the Minnesota Geological Survey.

MAYHEW - is for the late Henry Mayhew of Grand Marais, who aided this survey in Cook County.

quote Jeemon: "

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps."

My backyard! : )"

Nice backyard."

Someone in the area hauled up a store that used to be located on Hwy 61 somewhere around Knife River. I remember the building from when I was a kid. They have not maintained it at all and it is probably just rotting away. You can see it on the west side of Hwy 2 just past the road to Christianson Lake.

DURFEE and KIMBALL CREEKS - the latter having Kimball and Pickerel Lakes. Durfee Creek was named in honor of George H. Durfee, judge of probate of this county. Kimball Creek was named by Clark, in the geological exploration of 1864, for Charles G. Kimball, a number of the party, who lost his life near this stream by drowning in Lake Superior.

MT. JOSEPHINE - at the east side of Grand Portage Bay, was named for a daughter of John Godfrey of Detroit, Mich., who had a trading post at Grand Marais during several years, up to 1858. With a party of young people, she walked from Grand Portage to the top of this mountain about the year 1853.

GRAND PORTAGE ISLAND - which lies in front of the bay of this name, is now often called Ganon Island for Peter Ganon, who had a supply store on its northern point.

COOK COUNTY - Col. Charles H. Graves, the state senator from Duluth, introduced the bill to establish this county and to name it in honor of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de la Vérendrye, the pioneer of exploration on the northern boundary of Minnesota, but the name was changed before the bill was enacted as a law. It has been thought by some that the name adopted was in commemoration of John Cook, who was killed by the Ojibwe, as also his entire family, in 1872, his house at Audubon, Minn., being burned to conceal the deed. Col. Graves has stated in a letter that this name was selected to honor Maj. Cook.

Established March 9, 1874, was named in honor of Maj. Michael Cook of Faribault, a prominent citizen and a brave soldier in the Civil War. He was born in Morris County, N.J., March 17, 1828; came to Minnesota, settling in Faribault, in 1855, and being a carpenter, aided in building some of the first frame houses there; and was a territorial and state senator, 1857 to 1862. In September 1862, he was mustered into the Tenth Minnesota Regiment, in which he was appointed major, and served until he fell mortally wounded in the battle of Nashville, December 16, 1864, his death occurring 11 days later.

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps."

My backyard! : )"

Nice backyard."

Someone in the area hauled up a store that used to be located on Hwy 61 somewhere around Knife River. I remember the building from when I was a kid. They have not maintained it at all and it is probably just rotting away. You can see it on the west side of Hwy 2 just past the road to Christianson Lake."

Is this it?

HOVLAND - the oldest organized township of Cook county, is in compliment to a pioneer settler named Brunes for his native place in Norway. The village is located in section 20. In 1888 Ole Brunes and Nels Ludwig Eliasen, two Norwegian carpenters from Duluth, built a log cabin on Brunes's homestead, the two families living together until Eliasen finished a cabin on the adjoining homestead, and other settlers followed. Fishing, logging, and trapping were the principal occupations. Until the post office was established in 1889, the community was called Chicago for the bay on which it is located, that name being used primarily by the Booth Packing Company as their ship's regular stop to pick up fishermen's boxes and barrels. The name was rejected by local residents because it was a corruption of the Ojibwe word Shikag/Jikag, meaning "skunk"; the name Hovland was submitted by Anna Brunes, taken from her grandfather's estate in Norway.

CASCADE RIVER - named from its series of beautiful waterfalls near its mouth, has Cascade and Little Cascade Lakes, Swamp Lake, Eagle and Zoo Lakes, and the large Island Lake. About six miles above its mouth, it receives an eastern tributary named BALLY CREEK - in honor of Samuel Bally, a member of the board of county commissioners, who had a homestead there.

FORT CHARLOTTE - a fort established by the North West Company, prior to 1793, at T. 64N, R. 5E, section 29, at a site of a previous trading post erected in 1676-78 by Daniel Greysolon, sieur Du Luth, the first post built in Minnesota at the entrance of the Pigeon River on the north shore of Lake Superior. The fort was named for Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), the wife of George III of England.

quote Jeemon: "

quote inspector13:"Someone in the area hauled up a store that used to be located on Hwy 61 somewhere around Knife River. I remember the building from when I was a kid. They have not maintained it at all and it is probably just rotting away. You can see it on the west side of Hwy 2 just past the road to Christianson Lake."

Is this it?"

That’s it tucked away on the left. Maybe 10 years ago you could still read the name on the facade.

quote Jeemon: "BASSWOOD - Dr. Alexander Winchell named in 1886, on the northern limit of the geographic range of this tree, which was generally common throughout Minnesota and was abundant in the Big Woods."

Ooops, the Big Woods were located in south eastern and south central Minnesota about 200 miles away from the BWCA. It is funny how sometimes sources can contradict themselves. In the database which is based on Warren Upham’s book it says that Basswood Lake is actually the English translation of the French name for the Lake which was Lac Bois Blanc (White Wood Lake). There are some older sources that think the French name was a mistranslation of the native words for it. According to this source the natives at the time called it Pascau Minac Sagaigan, or lake of dry berries. The Ojibwe name was spelled Bassimenan by Newton H. Winchell, and Bassemenani by someone named Gilfillan, whose translation of it is Dried Blueberry Lake. Since Basswood trees don’t grow much farther north than Duluth so it is unlikely the natives would have had any reference to the tree, but the seeds of the Basswood tree are hard and berry like, it is likely that the words were mistranslated from the native words for the place where they gathered and dried blueberries for winter use.

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "BASSWOOD - Dr. Alexander Winchell named in 1886, on the northern limit of the geographic range of this tree, which was generally common throughout Minnesota and was abundant in the Big Woods."

Ooops, the Big Woods were located in south eastern and south central Minnesota about 200 miles away from the BWCA. It is funny how sometimes sources can contradict themselves. In the database which is based on Warren Upham’s book it says that Basswood Lake is actually the English translation of the French name for the Lake which was Lac Bois Blanc (White Wood Lake). There are some older sources that think the French name was a mistranslation of the native words for it. According to this source the natives at the time called it Pascau Minac Sagaigan, or lake of dry berries. The Ojibwe name was spelled Bassimenan by Newton H. Winchell, and Bassemenani by someone named Gilfillan, whose translation of it is Dried Blueberry Lake. Since Basswood trees don’t grow much farther north than Duluth so it is unlikely the natives would have had any reference to the tree, but the seeds of the Basswood tree are hard and berry like, it is likely that the words were mistranslated from the native words for the place where they gathered and dried blueberries for winter use."

Good find. All the Winchells get mixed up too between sources.

The book Lob Trees in the Wilderness has yet another theory on how Basswood Lake was named.

Here is another thread that has the subject of BWCA Lake names in it. In this thread I addressed a question that comes up occasionally here about Carp Lake, but it is buried just as this response is in yet another thread:

"Carp Lake is most likely named that way for the same reason there is a Carp River in UP Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains. (There is also a Carp Lake AKA Trout Lake in the UP that contains primarily trout species.) We asked park personnel why the river was called that. We were told that it was named after the Lake Trout that run up the river to spawn. Apparently when Europeans named these places, Trout, Salmon and similar fish were called Carp since they were oily fleshed fish which can be found in fresh water, just like European Carp.

Taxonomy has come a long way since Carl Linnaeus began the modern classification system in the 1750s."

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "

quote inspector13: "

quote Jeemon: "CHRISTENSEN, AMBERGER, CLARK, and KANE - named for cruisers selecting tracts of timber or for lumbermen in charge of logging camps."

My backyard! : )"

Nice backyard."

Someone in the area hauled up a store that used to be located on Hwy 61 somewhere around Knife River. I remember the building from when I was a kid. They have not maintained it at all and it is probably just rotting away. You can see it on the west side of Hwy 2 just past the road to Christianson Lake.

"

I think that store used to be in Castle Danger. I know the guy who owns it. He is a contractor from the area but mostly works out of state now.

quote brantlars: "I think that store used to be in Castle Danger. I know the guy who owns it. He is a contractor from the area but mostly works out of state now."

I didn’t think it was that far to the northeast, but it could have been. We used to make a day by stopping at various places between Duluth and Gooseberry Falls way back when. Highway 61 has changed so much. They took all the fun curves out of it. : )

Thanks for the history Jeemon! I have been on this site for a few years and am only now finding this private forum.?!..... Cool stuff.

I can help with some Ojibwa names of lakes but will not be able to tell you why. As many have previously mentioned the Ojibwa kept no dictionary or written history; it is hard to decipher the original meaning as no one was present when the lake was named other then native people. Some early explorers did write some down so there is history but the reasoning for most is unsure.

As we know many Ojibwa words are poor interpretations of the original word or meaning. The language barrier was immense at the time and subtle changes to many Ojibwa words could change the whole meaning. A simple letter misplacement as "ina" (indicating a question) to "inda" (meaning place of origin) changes a lot about the sequential meaning. The "a" in those two words is pronounced "uh".

What is cool about language, (including the Ojibwa language) is that it is forever changing. Many words have been added and changed over the years as different dialects interpret words. We have words for computer and refrigerator. Mostly based on shortening of other words to describe what we see. You have to remember we did not know our European brothers and sisters until they came to the New World. The name we gave them was " chi-mookamon" meaning big swords. They were people just like the Ojibwa but what separated them from the Ojibwa was they carried big swords so the name stuck.

I will try and get some translations up ASAP. I am doing this on my phone right now so it sucks....

Thanks for the history Jeemon! I have been on this site for a few years and am only now finding this private forum.?!..... Cool stuff.

I can help with some Ojibwa names of lakes but will not be able to tell you why. As many have previously mentioned the Ojibwa kept no dictionary or written history; it is hard to decipher the original meaning as no one was present when the lake was named other then native people. Some early explorers did write some down so there is history but the reasoning for most is unsure.

As we know many Ojibwa words are poor interpretations of the original word or meaning. The language barrier was immense at the time and subtle changes to many Ojibwa words could change the whole meaning. A simple letter misplacement as "ina" (indicating a question) to "inda" (meaning place of origin) changes a lot about the sequential meaning. The "a" in those two words is pronounced "uh".

What is cool about language, (including the Ojibwa language) is that it is forever changing. Many words have been added and changed over the years as different dialects interpret words. We have words for computer and refrigerator. Mostly based on shortening of other words to describe what we see. You have to remember we did not know our European brothers and sisters until they came to the New World. The name we gave them was " chi-mookamon" meaning big swords. They were people just like the Ojibwa but what separated them from the Ojibwa was they carried big swords so the name stuck.

I will try and get some translations up ASAP. I am doing this on my phone right now so it sucks....

Thanks for the info