Page 11: Newspaper Article

Is It The Popple River - Or Poplar River?

"Is it the Popple River, or the Poplar River?" This was the question brought before the Clark County Board of Supervisors last week by Rosalind Chubb, CLark County Clerk.

In board action, the resolution was adopted asking the Wisconsin Geographic Names Council to make the proper change: from the Poplar River to its correct name, Popple River.

For some time the Popple River, which runs south of Owen, had inadvertently been changed on all maps and state references to the name "Poplar River." This is also true of the name "Poplar River Watershed", which was constructed and completed recently north of Owen. In the official documents concerning the watershed project, on federal, state, and local levels, the project, the river, and its two forks are known as the "Poplar River."

It was learned recently; however, that the Division of Resource Management could request the Wisconsin Geographic Names Council to make the proper change.

According to the history of the Owen area and Northern Clark County, the river was named after the first person who is identified as having been in the area which is known as Owen. He was Sam Popple, a long-haired, bearded logger, who named the Popple River when he passed through the wilderness area later known as Owen sometime after the Civl War, between 1865-1870.

Sam Popple also gave his name to Popple Lake north of Chippewa Falls where he settled and built a log shanty. Historical accounts picture Sam carrying a muzzle-loading musket with a powder horn, looking much like the typical pioneer of the American frontier.

Now the bones of Sam Popple can rest easy again as once again the river he named after himself, once again will be properly named.

For some years this pioneer was forgotten, as everyone from federal, state, and local government officials, the map makers, included incorrectly renamed the river he named after himself sometime between 1865-1870. This is Sam Popple, as he looked in 1879. As far as historians are certained, he is the first person to be identified as having explored the woods and the river in the area now known as Owen. In recent years, the river he named has been mis-named the "Poplar River." Now the error has been corrected by County Board action.

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