Help find a New Name for Sambo Creek
February 2011
J.T Lambert School and the Brodhead Watershed Association have launched a community project to help find a new name for Sambo Creek.
Several years ago, the Brodhead Watershed Association arranged for stream name signs to be placed on many streams in our watershed in Monroe County.
Shortly after the bright blue signs appeared, the BWA, Smithfield Township and the Borough of East Stroudsburg got calls complaining about the use of the name “Sambo” on the creek of that name was a racist slur. The reservoirs at the headwaters of this creek provide the drinking water for East Stroudsburg. (view map.)
Because the signs were new, some callers thought the creek name was also new. BWA members explained that this was the historical name of the creek -- taken from local maps at some point in the 1880s by the United States Geological Survey. The BWA did not know where the name came from. The Monroe County Historical Society also did not have any information on the origin of the name. At some point, the Sambo Creek signs were removed as a result of the complaints.
The United States Geological Survey is the agency in charge of naming geographical features like streams, rivers and lakes. In 2008 a Monroe County resident filed a petition with the USGS suggesting Reservoir Run as a new name. In 2009, Bob Labar, a teacher at J.T. Lambert School started a water testing roject with his 7th grade students. They choose Sambo Creek/Reservoir Run to test - the creek runs behind East Stroudsburg High School. The students choose to call the stream they were testing Reservoir Run and when they learned it was not the official name, decided to take on the project of renaming the creek.
The idea of changing the name of Sambo Creek to Reservoir Run did not meet with universal approval, the BWA is supporting the students' efforts to rename the creek as a community project.