This area was first referred to as the Four Lakes in a manuscript in 1817 and in print in 1829.
In 1833 a team of surveyors led by Orson Lyon moved through what is now Dane County, from south
to north, naming the lakes First through Fourth as they encountered them. Their map showed what
is now Lake Wingra as a mere pond and left it unnamed. Because settlers believed it had no
outlet, it was commonly called Dead Lake as early as 1840.
In 1849 Simeon Mills, one of Madison's first settlers, employed Frank Hudson of Philadelphia to
plat the University Addition. Hudson, familiar with Indian legends, suggested the names Monona and
Mendota be applied to Third and Fourth lakes respectively. Mendota, a Dakota name, means "confluence
of rivers." Monona, a Sauk-Fox name, was translated as "fairy."
A few years later, in 1854, Gov. Leonard Farwell, a relentless promoter of Madison, decided all of
the lakes should have Indian names. Lyman Draper, the first secretary of the Wisconsin Historical
Society, found two Ojibwa names for First and Second lakes -- Kegonsa ("little fish") and Waubesa
("swan"). The Legislature made these names, as well as Wingra, a Ho-Chunk name meaning "duck,"
official on Feb. 14, 1855.
A year earlier Horace Greeley had created a map of the Four Lakes for Farwell to use in his
promotions, showing these names in print for the first time (although Greeley spelled Monona
"Menona"). Other features familiar today were also named, including Picnic Point, which to that
time had been called Gooseberry Point, and the Yahara River, an Ojibwa word for "catfish," also
chosen by Farwell.
Other place names included Peena "good water" Creek, today Pheasant Branch; Tarporah "breast bone"
Creek, today Nine Springs Creek; Neosho "containing water" Creek, today Six Mile Creek; and
Wyseorah Creek, today Starkweather Creek.
