The president believes he has now, by executive order, renamed Lake Ontario, one of the Canada-adjacent Great Lakes, as Lake America. Lake America? That’s the name? I don’t think he workshopped it.
For geographic and historic context on Lake Ontario, here’s what the Associated Press tells us: “The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.”
And as a reminder, the city of Ontario took its name from the province.
You know this story, right? Two brothers from Canada, George and William Chaffey, both of them engineers, arrived in Riverside in 1880.
To quote the National Park Service: “Two years later, George Chaffey bought 6,218 acres of land and began to lay out a model colony, which he named Ontario after his native province in Canada.”
Yes, our city of Ontario is named for the province of Ontario, which took its name from Lake Ontario. Which is now, at least as far as the president is concerned, Lake America.
Locals are already wondering if the change stops there.
“With Trump renaming Lake Ontario, maybe he will need to rename Ontario Airport and the city of Ontario,” reader Terri Di Donato of Alta Loma muses by email.
“Does the new presidential order extend to the Ontario in California?” wonders Richard Lemire of Riverside. “If so, do we now have America International Airport? The America Tower Buzzers? And will their stadium need to be renamed AME Field?”
Yet more developments that weren’t on our 2026 bingo cards.
Might Ontario, California have to change its name to America, California? Will its mall be renamed America Mills? Will critics urge the former Ontario City Council to Make America Great Again?
Retroactively, will longtime subscribers around Ontario now tell me they’ve been taking the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin since it was the America Daily Report?
On the plus side, a new name for Ontario could clear up some confusion — which was caused by the current name.
Stories are legion of inattentive travelers booking what they thought was a flight to Canada and landing amidst our heat and palm trees. That wouldn’t happen if they were flying to America International Airport in America, California!
I imagine Gov. Gavin Newsom would get a fresh talking point from the new name. “Anyone who says California isn’t part of America,” he might declare with a smirk, “had better think again. Because America is definitely part of California.”
Still, the changes might not stop at Ontario’s, I mean, America’s borders. Trouble might radiate outward.
Upland — uh-oh — was part of the original model colony too.
Already I’m worrying about an Upland institution, the family fun center whose namesake is a certain 1960s animated character. I’m referring, naturally, to the world’s most famous French-Canadian moose, Bullwinkle.
Can Bullwinkle claim U.S. citizenship, or qualify for a work visa? How would his ouster affect Rocky the flying squirrel? Also, are Russian spies Boris and Natasha, who sought to undermine the United States, now considered our friends?
Let’s not hit the panic button just yet. We might in time come to accept a patriotic, flag-forward new name for Ontario and a few tweaks to Upland.
But here’s my personal red line: Don’t dare rename Rancho Cucamonga. Some things are sacred.
Dolly in the IE
Dolly Parton once owned a cabin in Idyllwild, which was listed for sale in 2014, and in the 1980s spent a few weeks at a holistic health facility in Valle Vista, near Hemet and San Jacinto, where she briefly became a regular at a nail salon.
More publicly, I’m aware of only one concert appearance in the IE, very early in her career, at San Bernardino’s Swing Auditorium in 1968.
If you were there, or if you saw her somewhere else in the IE, drop me a line at dallen@scng.com, with your name and city of residence, please.
More Shappy
Greg Shapton, the retired Pomona Public Library director whose memorial service got an item here Wednesday, is remembered fondly by many past staffers. Lois Robbins, a retired children’s librarian, recalls Shappy’s open-door policy and sense of humor.
Robbins says that at times she would visit his office to “whine” about a problematic colleague. With a smile on his face, Shapton would pick up a baseball bat and swing it lustily through the air, as if at the troublesome employee’s face.
Confides Robbins: “I can’t tell you how satisfying that was! Nothing changed in that situation, but I went back and faced it with a big smile on my face.”
More Oldenborg
My Aug. 23 column was about the demolition of the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages at Pomona College after 60 years. I focused on the building’s loose connection to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as possible inspiration for the Borg.
Faithful reader Hugh McBride of Rancho Cucamonga tells me that as a game, he will scan our newspaper’s website to try to identify which headline might be for my column.
“Some days that can be a bit of a challenge,” McBride admits. “Other days — such as when one of the choices is ‘”Star Trek” alien race has link to Pomona College language center’ — not so much.”
Meanwhile, Michael Tacchia of San Bernardino says his then-girlfriend Michèle Brosseau was housed at Oldenborg in the summer of 1973 for a music festival and that they both have fond memories of the building.
Quoting the Borg’s frequently stated threat, Tacchia says: “We married several years later, so I am happy to relate to you that ‘resistance’ was indeed futile.”
Secret Stairs
Stair walks on old public staircases around Silver Lake, Los Feliz and environs have been a subject here in recent years. The furthest east walk in the “Secret Stairs” guidebook is in Pasadena. This Sunday (Aug. 30), its author, Charles Fleming, will lead that La Loma walk in person.
Meet at 9 a.m. at 7311 N. Figueroa St., in front of Hamburger Habit, for what Fleming calls a “gentle, shaded walk” that covers 2 1/2 miles and lasts about an hour. It’s free.
brIEfly
I’m scheduled for oral surgery Monday morning, after which I am to rest comfortably at home, ice pack pressed to my cheek, for the remainder of the day. Under these conditions, a Wednesday column looks unlikely — but check in just in case.
David Allen ices Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.