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A city once called Sibley and Frogtown became Pequot. In 1900, Walter and Flora Brown filed their plat for the E 1/2 of the SW 1/4 section 10 in T136N-R29W under the title Pequot. It's easy to figure out where the name Lakes came from, but what about Pequot? The Pequot Indians are a small tribe that has existed in eastern Connecticut since the first European settlers arrived here. While no Pequot tribes ever lived in this area, the Algonquin language was carried here by the Chippewa (Ojibwe) tribes.

Two possible explanations for the town's name arise:

1. Lakes area historian Carl Zapffe suggests that a variation of the Chippewa word for arrow (bikwas) as listed by Father Barroga in his Chippewa dictionary gave rise to the word Pequot.

2. Another explanation comes from a 1936 interview of Laurence Anderson, who moved to the town in the mid 1890s. "A daughter of Waubanaquot, Chief of the White Earth Tribe, was named O-Pequot and lived north of the town on the north end of Sibley Lake. She graciously allowed her dugout home to be used as a school and a church for the early settlers of the town. When she died, she was buried in the town cemetery."

Was the name Pequot chosen to honor her? No one knows for sure why Walter and Flora chose the name Pequot. However, we do know that change was mandated by the U.S. Post Office because of a town already named Sibley in southwestern Minnesota. In any event, the town's name was officially changed to Pequot in 1902.

For more information on the history of Pequot Lakes, contact:

Pequot Lakes Heritage Preservation Commission
Pequot Lakes City Hall
PO Box 361
Pequot Lakes, MN 56472