{"id":283974,"date":"2026-09-11T19:04:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283974\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T19:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:04:41","slug":"lake-erie-should-be-lake-pennsylvania-u-s-lawmaker-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283974\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Erie should be Lake Pennsylvania, U.S. lawmaker says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. lawmaker is pushing to rename another one of the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n

Rep. David Maloney says he is preparing a resolution urging U.S. President Donald Trump, Congress, and the United States Secretary of the Interior to begin the process of changing the name of Lake Erie to \u201cLake Pennsylvania.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Pennsylvania\u2019s only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families and tourists who come to enjoy it\u201d the Republican said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cOhio has plenty of shoreline. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others\u2026 Pennsylvania has one. Let\u2019s call it Lake Pennsylvania!\u201d<\/p>\n

The call comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to rename Lake Ontario \u201cLake America.\u201d Despite the president\u2019s executive order, multiple organizations and democratic lawmakers in the U.S. have mocked the decision, saying that they refuse to call the body of water anything but Lake Ontario.<\/p>\n

\"\"Trump Lake America, Lake Ontario (Associated Press) <\/p>\n

Canadian officials are also not recognizing the change, with Prime Minister Mark Carney previously pointing out that the Lake Ontario name predates both Canada and the United States. <\/p>\n

Trumps decision to change the name of the lake came after a war of words with Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

While Google Maps in the United States has opted to change the name of the lake, MapQuest said it would not follow suit and even erected a six-foot billboard in Chicago<\/a> with a tagline that read, \u201cIt\u2019s still Lake Ontario. And we\u2019re still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mapquest prints out directions to Lake Ontario MapQuest GM, Doug Berger, giving Questies printed directions to Lake Ontario from Chicago, Sept. 10, 2026. (MapQuest X) <\/p>\n

In making his case to change the name of Lake Erie, Maloney said visitors are increasingly coming from out-of-state to visit the shoreline in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery summer, Pennsylvanians head toward the lake\u2014north on I-79 from western Pennsylvania, west on I-80 from central and eastern Pennsylvania and along connecting highways from every corner of the Commonwealth\u2014with boats, fishing gear and families in tow,\u201d Maloney said. \u201cThey spend the weekend, and money, on Pennsylvania\u2019s Great Lake shoreline and return home Sunday to communities across the Commonwealth. Presque Isle and Erie Bluffs attract millions of visitors annually, and tourism is now one of Erie County\u2019s largest industries.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that the state \u201cpunches well above its weight in maintaining the Great Lake\u2019s recreational fishery. <\/p>\n

It is unclear if the president and other lawmakers will get behind the request.<\/p>\n

Correction<\/p>\n

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Maloney as a U.S. congressman. Maloney is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A U.S. lawmaker is pushing to rename another one of the Great Lakes. Rep. David Maloney says he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[10268,136,138,137],"class_list":["post-283974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-apple-news","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}