In 1991, the Wisconsin Assembly passed Bill 647, which changed the name of the portion of the Galena River in Wisconsin to Fever River. This geographic feature extends from its headwaters in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, to its mouth on the Mississippi River in Illinois, southwest of the city of Galena. (See map below.)
Wisconsin Act 284 (1991) states,
…the portion of the Galena river located within the state is renamed the Fever river. That name shall be used on all maps and in all reports and other publications issued by the state or any of its political subdivisions … and it shall be the official name of this river.
Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson signed the bill into law on April 29, 1992.
BGN Decisions
Geography Professor Gary C. Meyer, at UW-Stevens Point, prompted action by the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) when he sent them a letter in 1992 inquiring about the federal response to the name change. The BGN response was:
“Since you have brought to our attention that legislation has been signed to change the name on State documents, we shall prepare a case brief and have the Board revisit its 1911 decision.”
The name Galena River was originally approved by the BGN in 1911. At that time, the BGN sent letters to Postmasters and County Clerks in Illinois and Wisconsin to establish local name usage. Both Galena River and Fever River were in local use at the time, and the BGN determined that the name Galena was the more appropriate choice, probably due to more widespread use. The name referred to the entire length of the feature in both Illinois and Wisconsin.
According to Jennifer Runyon of the BGN, the Board voted on September 8, 1994, not to approve the change to Fever River in Wisconsin, due to a lack of justification for changing a long-standing name and the fact that BGN policy does not permit geographic feature names to change at political boundaries. In addition, decisions enacted by state legislation are not binding to the federal government and the BGN is under no obligation to accept such actions.
As a result, in the federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the entire river – in both Illinois and Wisconsin – is known as the Galena River (GNIS feature 426934). GNIS was co-developed by the US Geological Survey and BGN. It contains the official names for geographic features in all fifty states.
However, the summary report page in GNIS lists many variant names for the river including Fever R., Febure R., Febvre R., Fevre R., La Riviere de Feve, LaRiviere River, Mecapiasipo, River of Mines, Riviere de la Fievre, Riviere des Feves and Apea Sepee.
The minutes of the 1994 BGN meeting indicate that:
“the name fever could refer to a translation of a Native American name for the stream, reportedly meaning “fever that blisters,” referring to the incidence of smallpox in the area that were believed to be caused by the many swamps along the stream. The second possibility is that the name is an Anglicized version of the French descriptive name for the stream and refers to the honey locust trees which grow in the area.”
The name Galena refers to the lead-bearing mineral found and mined in the area.
In Wisconsin
The name Fever River is used officially in Wisconsin, despite it not being recognized by the federal government. For example, the current DOT state highway map shows the Galena River as Galena R. in Illinois and Fever R. in Wisconsin.
But it gets confusing. The DNR’s Surface Water Data Viewer uses the name Fever River for the feature (WBIC 935500), but the details page calls it the Gelena River (with an e not an a) and describes the feature as “The Galena River, locally known as the Fever River.”
To make the situation even more confusing, the East Fork of the Galena River – to the east of the main channel – is called East Fork Galena River in Wisconsin (and Illinois), not East Fork Fever River. (See map above.)
Wisconsin is in an elite group. The BGN’s Jennifer Runyon is aware of only one other occurrence of a river changing names at a state boundary: the Toccoa River (in Georgia) and Ocoee River (in Tennessee).
Wisconsin Geographic Names Council
When the Wisconsin legislature changed the name to Fever River, the Wisconsin Geographic Names Council opposed the measure. Thomas Watkins, Secretary of the Council at the time, in a letter to the BGN dated December 16, 1993, recommended that
“in view of the historical evenness (together in time) and appropriateness (galena ore) of the name Galena River, and the fact that the U.S. Board had already ruled, and that Illinois and Wisconsin had for 75 years jointly used the name on their official maps and documents, and that consistency between the federal and state was implied in sec. 23.25, Wis. stats., that the department should not rename the river.”
And this is why there is a river in Wisconsin with two names – one for people from Wisconsin and one for everyone else.
As to why the Wisconsin legislature made the name change in the first place … that is still something of a mystery. If you can shed some light on that decision, please send me an email.
Thanks to Jennifer Runyon of the BGN (now retired) for bringing this to my attention and supplying the old memos, letters and notes about the 1911 and 1994 decisions.