Stillwater opts to keep Lumberjack Landing Park name

A riverside park in Stillwater will keep the name Lumberjack Landing, Mayor Ted Kozlowski said Wednesday, after a query from the city's Parks and Recreation Commission about changing it.

The commission acted after receiving a citizen's petition last week that said the name makes a cartoon of the area's logging history and doesn't take into account the park's natural or Dakota history. A separate petition in 2021 also sought a name change.

Kozlowski said changing the name now, more than two years after the council came up with it, would sow too much confusion.

"There's so many documents floating around to try and find programming and development ideas and things...to officially change the name right now would be a huge detriment to the success of that park," he said.

The park sits along the St. Croix River just north of downtown on land that belonged to the Aiple family. The Aiples' now-empty house still on the property needs renovation, and the city plans more work to make it a spot for fishing, canoeing and kayaking. When the park is ready for a grand opening, Kozlowski said, the council wants to do a land acknowledgement and perhaps add "a secondary name or something that identifies the significance that a lot of people are talking about."

A local resident, Geri Freels, who donated $1 million for the renovation of the Aiple residence, joined the discussion earlier this week, saying she prefers that the city keep the name as is.