At Last, A Space In Sam Owen Campground
After 56 years, Sam Owen finally will get his name spelled right.
The now deceased Hope, Idaho, man donated a pristine piece of lakefront property to the U.S. Forest Service in 1940. The Lake Pend Oreille parcel has 80 campsites and is the most popular campground in North Idaho.
But the sign at the campground always has read “Samowen.” The spelling has baffled visitors, confused Forest Service officials and irritated locals.
Forest Service officials can’t count the number of times tourists have referred to the area as if it had a Polynesian theme.
“Can you tell me about Samoan campground?” they ask.
“I can’t find any reason in our records why it was ever made one word,” said Forest Service spokeswoman Judy York. “It just showed up in documents that way and it stuck.”
Nan Compton, a Montana woman who knows the history of Sam Owen, finally tired of the misnomer.
“His name is Sam Owen. It’s annoying and ridiculous to run it together like that,” she said. “He was a generous man, and I think we need to honor him appropriately by his real name.”
Compton took her complaint to the Forest Service. It agreed the name of the 200-acre campground should be changed.
York expected it would take years of bureaucratic red tape. It didn’t.
“All we have to do is change it. It turned out to be easier than I expected,” she said.
Changing the names of some federal sites actually takes an act of Congress. That happened in 1990 when the NezPerce Forest name was changed to Nez Perce.
The Forest Service will mount a new sign at the campground and change its brochures and maps to read Sam Owen.
“I always thought it was weird they put the name together,” said Dave DeMeres, a great nephew of Owen’s who still lives in Hope.
He’s heard tourists talk about Samoan park and bumble an explanation about it being named for a great Indian chief.
“People have come up with all kinds of bizarre stories,” he said. “I’m glad it will finally be changed to the way it should be.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map of area