House member wants waters renamed to Lake Pennsylvania
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A Pennsylvania House member wants the federal government to change Lake Erie's name to Lake Pennsylvania.
Rep. David Maloney, R-Boyertown, is preparing a House Resolution that would ask President Donald Trump, Congress, and the United States Secretary of the Interior to take the necessary steps to rename Lake Erie as "Lake Pennsylvania." Maloney's resolution is unlikely to be passed in the House or signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro even if it was approved in the GOP-led state Senate.
"This is Pennsylvania's only Great Lake. Its modern economy and identity are increasingly tied to the boaters, anglers, families and tourists who come to enjoy it" Maloney said. "Ohio has plenty of shoreline. New York already has two Great Lakes. Canada has four others. Pennsylvania has one. Let's call it Lake Pennsylvania!"
Maloney's proposal comes a few weeks after Trump said he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as "Lake America" in the United States as he escalates his trade war with Canada. The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow along, however. The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat whose state shares a border on the lake, wrote on X in response to the White House’s announcement that, "New York won't be calling it that" according to the Associated Press.
Maloney said in his co-sponsorship resolution that Lake Erie attracts Pennsylvanians from throughout the commonwealth, including to Presque Isle and the Erie Bluffs in Erie County, Pa. Maloney said research from Pennsylvania Sea Grant shows roughly 74% of surveyed anglers live in Pennsylvania and travel an average of 103 miles locally to reach the water, alongside significant seasonal waves of out-of-state visitors coming down from New York and up from Ohio to access Erie County's famed “Steelhead Alley.”
"Increasingly, anglers from New York and Ohio visit Erie for fishing because the area produces better fishing for walleye, perch and other tasty game fish and has easy access with many different boat launch sites," Maloney said. "The area also produces many trophy fish with Presque Isle being a productive unique fishery in itself as it is protected from major shifting lake patterns. Pennsylvania also punches well above its weight in maintaining our Great Lake's recreational fishery. Despite having a relatively small share of the lake's shoreline, Pennsylvania stocked nearly 500,000 yearling steelhead in 2025--approximately 40% of all steelhead stocked and more than any other state or Canadian province. Pennsylvania also supplied all the brown trout stocked into the lake that year."
The Seneca Nation opposed Trump's renaming of Lake Ontario, which comes from the Huron Indigenous people's word "oniatarí:io," which means "lake of shining waters." The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people's word "oniatarí:io," which means "lake of shining waters." The Canadian province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake. Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca called for Trump’s order to be rescinded and for the Lake Ontario name to remain as a reflection of the Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada who lived in territory around and along the lake long before the creation of either nation. Seneca said the renaming violated the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which was signed by President George Washington and the Haudenosaunee confederacy promising perpetual peace and friendship. The Seneca are one of the six nations of the confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.
"The President cannot assert ownership over our culture or erase it through irresponsible political action,” he said in a statement.
Lake Erie gets its name from the Erie Native American tribe, whose name comes from the Iroquoian word erielhonan, meaning “long tail.”