Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Pond scum theory bites the dust

Mayor Don Wolfe (left) and fellow Saratogans Marilyn White and Jack Mallory make a little revisionist history as they participate in a ceremony last week at Bella Saratoga to proclaim for all the world: 'We're not pond scum.' The mayor's proclamation states that Saratoga shall hereafter be known as a city named for the Iroquois nation word that means 'hillside country of the great river, place of the swift water.' Previous history lessons had it that the city's name--borrowed from Saratoga Springs, N.Y.--referred to the the scum that floats on the water in that area, in the language of the Iroquois nation. But the mayor, who used to swim in the Hudson River, says his memories do not include floating scum. Thus his quest to set the record straight. As for future challenges to the interpretation, Wolfe says, he's done the research and he's ready to defend the current and official interpretation.

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