What’s in a Name?
A recent exhibit at the Johnson County Museum of History has led to a change of name for a local park. On November 10, 2003, the Overland Park City Council unanimously endorsed renaming Comanche Park, located at 82nd Terrace and Grant, to Sapling Grove Park. Thirteen-year-old Christopher Lamb and his mother Kathy, who live near the city park, had initiated the name change.
The Lambs had visited the Museum of History in June and had toured Focus on Johnson County, an exhibit highlighting ten sites along the routes of the Santa Fe and Oregon-California Trails in the county. The exhibit, on view from June 14, 2003 to August 10, 2003, accompanied a traveling display of contemporary photographs taken along the trail route from the Kansas City area to the west coast. One of the local sites high-lighted in the exhibit was Sapling Grove. Located at what is now the city park, Sapling Grove was a well-known campsite on the Santa Fe Trail beginning in the 1820s. Later, emigrants heading west on the Oregon-California Trail also rested there. Sapling Grove was, in fact, the rendezvous point for the Bidwell-Bartleson group, the first caravan of families setting out on the trail in 1841.
Enthused by what he and his mother had learned at the museum, Christopher Lamp gathered 111 signatures from neighbors in support of changing the name of Cherokee Park to Sapling Grove Park. The idea was also endorsed by the Overland Park Historical Society, the Downtown Overland Park Partnership and the Grantioch Homes Association, which represents 450 residences near the park. During three appearances before the Citizens Advisory Council on Parks and Recreation, the Lambs presented their proposal. After some discussion, the name change won the support of both the Advisory Council and the Overland Park City Council.
--ALBUM vol. 17, no. 1 (winter 2004)