Patriots owner Robert Kraft among backers of successful push to rename Wyoming’s Swastika Lake
The origins of the name are unknown but date back to at least 1922
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft at a game against the Detroit Lions at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Oct. 9, 2022. Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Getty Images
By Adam Kovac June 21, 2023
A proposal to rename Wyoming’s Swastika Lake that received support from one of the United State’s most prominent and wealthiest Jews — New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — will move forward.
In a meeting held Tuesday in Laramie, the Albany County Commissioners discussed a motion that was submitted to rename the waterway for, as chair Pete Gosar put it, “obvious reasons.”
Swastika Lake is located in Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest. The proposal to change the lake’s name was initially discussed by the commissioners at a June 6 meeting at the behest of resident Lindsy Sanders, who suggested Fortune Lake as a possible replacement. The Albany County Historical Society, however, proposed naming the lake in honor of Samuel Knight, a professor and dinosaur enthusiast who was known as Mr. Geology of Wyoming.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Sanders said she would be open to Knight Lake and said the focus should be on removing “a name that is so painful to so many people.”
During the June 6 meeting, both Gosar and fellow commissioner Sue Ibarra supported the renaming campaign, but the change was opposed by third member Terri Jones, who said the name had historical significance and that it presented an opportunity to teach about the evils of antisemitism and the Nazi regime.
On Tuesday, Jones added a third reason for wanting to keep the name, saying the Biden administration is “employing Nazi tactics to divide people in this country, pitting one group against another. It is painfully clear people do not know history as they are following the Pied Piper.”
Jones’ outburst went uncommented on by the other commissioners, who both voted in favor of naming the body of water Knight Lake.
According to letters submitted to the commissioners from the Albany County Historical Society, the name “Swastika” had been used not only for the lake, but also for a ranch and store with roots in the early 20th century. However, the name had fallen out of favor during the onset of World War II, when the Nazi regime in Germany appropriated the symbol.
A letter from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names said the origins of the lake’s name were unknown but that references to it had been found as early as 1922. The letter notes that the swastika is “a sacred symbol for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, and is also significant in many Native American cultures.”
In a letter dated June 16, Kraft, the Patriots owner and billionaire philanthropist, urged the Board of Commissioners to move ahead with renaming the lake.
“While we appreciate the history and original meaning of the swastika symbol, it has unfortunately become synonymous with one of the greatest atrocities in human history after being appropriated by the German Nazi Party in 1920,” Kraft wrote. “Although the name of Swastika Lake precedes the rise of the Nazi party, today the symbol as well as the word ‘swastika’ serves as a traumatic and painful reminder of the Holocaust for Jewish people and all communities that were victims of the Holocaust including members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with physical disabilities, and the Roma and Sinti.”
Among Kraft’s philanthropic endeavors is a $25 million campaign to counter antisemitism. In his letter, Kraft noted there was precedent in the U.S., pointing to the renaming of Oregon’s Mount Halo from Swastika Mountain in May.
Commissioner Gosar is the brother of Paul Gosar, the far-right Arizona congressman who in recent years has repeatedly associated with white nationalists.
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