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Flathead County

Commissioners Approve Proposals to Finalize Lake Name Changes

If approved, the two lakes, formerly known as Lost Coon Lake and Mud Lake, will be known as Lost Loon Lake and Rost Lake on federal maps

By Micah Drew
Lost Loon Lake south of Whitefish, as seen on August 19, 2020. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

The Flathead County commissioners at their May 4 meeting unanimously approved proposals to change the names of two Flathead County lakes with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN).

Last fall, residents in Whitefish successfully petitioned the Flathead County District Court to change the racist name of Lost Coon Lake to Lost Loon Lake.

More than half the property owners along the lake joined the renaming effort, leading Judge Dan Wilson to grant the Petition for Change of Watercourse Name, writing “the public record shall reflect the lake’s name change to Lost Loon Lake.”

In a final push to standardize the new name, Flathead County approved the proposal to register Lost Loon Lake with the BGN, a federal body that works to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout branches of the federal government.

The original proposal was submitted to BGN by Whitefish City Attorney Angela Jacobs. In her case brief, Jacobs wrote that “Loons returned to Lost Coon Lake after Whitefish Lake Golf Club, which owns property abutting the Lake, purchased and installed a nesting platform to encourage their establishment.”

A second proposal, submitted to BGN by Arne Brosten, of Bigfork, is to change the name of Mud Lake, northeast of Bigfork, to Rost Lake. The 143-acre lake was referenced as Rost Lake in county maps dating back to 1902 and 1903, as well as a bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club published in 1920.

The name change to Mud Lake was noticed on a USGS map beginning in 1914. Brosten wrote in his submission that “I am not sure how the name was changed to Mud Lake, but it would not surprise me if people called it that due to the low level of the lake and the amount of sediment on the bottom. You cannot walk into the lake without sinking into mud up to your waist.”

The new name is intended to commemorate Conrad Rost who homesteaded on the property in 1899. Members of the Rost family signed on to a letter supporting the proposal to “demonstrate a commitment to preserve our pioneering ancestors’ history.”

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) lists 25 lakes in Montana with the name Mud Lake, four of which are in Flathead County. The nearest Mud Lake is 27 miles northwest of the lake in question.

As of May 6, only the Lost Loon Lake proposal was listed on the BGN quarterly review list.