Wolf River, Ahnepee, Ahnapee, Algoma: The Naming

Confusing to genealogists and historians are the place names that have changed over time. When it happens three times in less than 50 years, it can be even more challenging. So it is with Algoma.

What is now Kewaunee County was a part of Door in early summer 1851 when the Warners, Hughes and Tweedales settled in the wilderness at the place where the Wolf River emptied into Lake Michigan. The three families gave rise to the first permanent settlement in what became Kewaunee County the following April.

As surveying began in 1834, names were put to the major rivers. For a time Kewaunee River was called Wood's River though this map printed before April 1851 gives today's Ahnapee as Wool's River. Printing errors could have influenced calling it the Wolf.* 

Native Americans populating the area referred to it as Muk-wan-wish-ta-guon. "Muk-wan" has been said to be a Pottawatomie word meaning "whole bear's head." The Indian village was also called An-An-api-sebe, an Ojibwa word meaning, "Where is the river?" Historian George Wing wrote that perhaps parents called it Wolf River to frighten the children into staying close to the home, saying that a great gray wolf would get them. The woods were so thick that a child who walked into the woods would have easily been lost, perhaps prompting parents to feel there was safety promoting the fear of lurking wolves. History tells us others, including ship captains, referred to the place as Wolf River Trading Post.

By 1859, only eight years after the naming, the residents decided to revive the old Indian name and called the place Ahnepee. The problem was the state which consistently misspelled the place's name. It wasn't only the state that spelled Ahnepee as Ahnapee, so did some of the residents. When Ahnepee was chartered as a village in 1873, it changed its name to Ahnapee. Apparently residents felt, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Wing would later write that perhaps the settlers chose it because, when properly spoken, Ah-ne-pee was a "beautiful and euphonious name."

There was a problem with Ahnapee too. Jokes involving the community's name were far worse than the Advocate referring to residents as "Ahnapeepers." Anna was a popular name for little girls in the late 1800s, but not in Ahnapee! Residents began looking for another name.

Alderman Mike McCosky presented a petition from residents to the City Council on June 7, 1897. It requested that the City of Ahnapee become the City of Algoma. Such a change would be made in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 108 of the Laws of 1897. On July 13, Ordinance 19 was unanimously passed and the City of Ahnapee passed out of existence just had Wolf River 30 years earlier. Algoma became official on September 7. Fair Haven was suggested as a replacement name by one who thought it was a beautiful name for a beautiful place, but it was not accepted. A Chicago resident, in a letter to the editor in 1897, said changing the city's name from Ahnapee to Algoma was no improvement. Proposed names came from all over, but Algoma won.

Years later, in 1991, Virgil Vogel wrote a book on Wisconsin place names. In it he said Ahnapee was hardly a credible name but that settlers probably chose such a name because it had a pleasing sound. He also wrote that Algoma seemed to be a picturesque and coined name. However, the word is really an Algonquin word meaning, "Where waters meet." Waters meet in other places called Algoma, including the Town of Algoma in Winnebago County and Algoma, Ontario, Canada.

Generations of Algoma students have learned that Algoma is a Pottawatomie word meaning "park of flowers" and as Vogel says, that name "is purely fanciful." "Park of flowers" does have some historical merit though. An August 25, 1896 Ahnapee Record described the Indians calling the hill above the lake shore "rosy hill" as it was covered with wild roses.  George Rosier was an early resident who lived in the area that is now the southwest corner of Jefferson and Lake Streets. Rosier was among the many whose name was pronounced differently than the ears which thought they heard "Rosy." Rosy's place was a bit out of the tiny village in those days. The area called rosy hill by the Indians and Rosy Place by the settlers somehow got tangled with other bits of history. Though Ahnapee and Algoma are both Indian words, "park of flowers" has nothing to do with either.

Algoma is generally thought to be the third name for the community, however, if   Wolf River Trading Post and Ahnepee are counted, that makes five names in under 50 years.Such naming could well be a Wisconsin record.

*George Wing wrote about the wolves in the area and author Liz Howell wrote the legend of the great gray wolf in a short book by the same name. The legend is didactic much as Grimm's fairy tales are.

Translations were provided to this author in 2001 by the linguist at the Pottawatomie Cultural Center in Wisconsin and at a First Nations Cultural Center in Algoma, Canada.