It’s Tough Promoting Potholes Map Maker Invents New Names, Including Lovely ‘Lake Kalani’

A new map of Grant County leads only to trouble, authorities say.

Sheriff William Wiester is warning residents against using the map created by Moses Lake native Mark Fuhriman.

Fuhriman renamed some of the county’s most notable landmarks in his map, including Potholes Reservoir.

The reservoir is called “Lake Kalani” on Fuhriman’s “Moses Lake, Grant County & Canyon Communities road Map and Travel Guide.”

Several thousand of the maps, priced at $2.75 apiece, recently went on sale in stores and restaurants around Moses Lake.

“Our concern is this map does not depict a true and accurate representation of Grant County,” Wiester said in a Tuesday statement. “This map, if used to give locations to motorists or boaters in distress, could hamper rescue efforts by using unfamiliar names.”

Undersheriff Michael Shay cited the example of Fuhriman’s creation of Rainier Bay on Moses Lake. The “bay” has no commonly accepted name.

“If you call in and say your boat’s capsizing on Rainier Bay, you’re in trouble,” Shay said. “My boating officers don’t have any idea where Rainier Bay is, because it doesn’t exist.”

The county may seek a court order barring Fuhriman from selling his maps, Shay added.

Fuhriman said Tuesday the new names were intended to make his community “more promotable.”

The area needs to project a jazzier image in order to attract businesses and tourists, he said, and names like Potholes Reservoir don’t cut it.

“Potholes carries such negative connotations. It’s just a real loser of a name,” said Fuhriman, who also changed the area’s famous “coulees” to “canyons” on his map. “The effort was to upgrade the image of Grant County.”

Fuhriman embarked on the project about three years ago when he fell ill with chronic fatigue syndrome and couldn’t work anymore.

He hopes to make a little money on the project, which he called a “gift to the county,” but said he probably won’t break even for several months.

Fuhriman said county officials are out to sink his map because he has been critical of them in the past. “They’re out to nail me over a vendetta,” he said.

County officials aren’t the only ones criticizing Fuhriman’s work.

“I guess my question is what right does he have to take it upon himself to change the names?” asked Karen Wagner, manager of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, which is producing its own map with traditional names intact.

There are no hard and fast rules governing map-making, according to Steve Mitrovich, owner of Northwest Map Service in Spokane.

“There’s nothing sacred about any which way you do it,” Mitrovich said. “It’s regulated by the market. If people like it, they’ll buy it. And if enough people buy it, maybe the names will change.”

, DataTimes