Rum River Name Change Initiative
According to historical documents found in, “Minnesota Geographic Names”, a book written by Warren Upham, and published by the Minnesota Historical Society… in the late 1700s, white men gave the Rum River its current name by way of a “punning translation” that “perverted the ancient Sioux name Wakan”. In Minnesota, “the land of ten thousand lakes”, there is a large and beautiful lake named Mille Lacs. Its outlet river is named Rum. The Sioux name for the Rum River is…
