Patriots Owner Calls for Wyoming’s Swastika Lake Name Change

Rober Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, wants Swastika Lake in Albany County, (located in Southern Wyoming in the Medicine Bow Forest) to be renamed.

According to Cowboy State Daily, Kraft sent a letter to Albany County Commissioner Pete Gosar on Friday, requesting the commissioners support recommendations to change the name of the lake.

The lake which shares a name with the official symbol of the Nazi Party has drawn a nationwide response, as reported by the Casper Star Tribune.

According to Yahoo, A Republican Wyoming county commissioner is arguing that the controversially named Swastika Lake should keep its name, despite multiple proposals to rename the body of water in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.

“Why would we remove the teaching opportunity to explain the history of the swastika, both good and bad?” Albany County commissioner Terri Jones said at a council meeting last week, according to the Laramie Reporter. “The bad was very bad. However, the good predated the bad by eons. And the good is truly good and represents hope and goodwill.”

The Cowboy State Daily goes on to say, Robert Kraft believes the name glorifies the Nazis and their treatment of the Jewish community.

“The swastika is still being utilized by many white supremacist and antisemitic groups to glorify the Nazis and signal their hate to the Jewish community,” Kraft writes. “We urge you to stand beside the Jewish people and rename Swastika Lake so as not to contribute to the retraumatization of many Jewish people and members of other communities across the United States who were victimized by the Nazi regime.”

According to multiple reports there is now record of how Swastika Lake got its name.

The swastika is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by Neo-Nazis. It was one of the most publicized symbols of Adolph Hitlers’ Nazi regime during World War II.

Albany County Commissioners will deiced whether or not to approve changing the name Tuesday.

More information can be found here: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/19/new-england-patriots-owner-robert-kraft-among-those-pushing-to-change-name-of-wyomings-swastika-lake