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Hey, how come you all don't call the name of this here web site Grand Lake St. Marys dot Net?

The short answer:
Because we think Grand Lake Ohio is more descriptive.

But wait, the correct name is Grand Lake St Marys not Grand Lake Ohio.

The long answer:
This is the Internet and people using the Internet are usually looking
for accurate information. There are a few Grand Lakes in the world
but thousands of St Marys. We are just helping them find what they want.

It's Grand Lake ST MARYS you @$&?#?%!

The longer answer:
Grand Lake Net (aka Grand Lake Ohio) originated from Celina.Com
back in 1995. We later expanded the web site to include not just Celina, Ohio
but all of Mercer and Auglaize counties and renamed the site to Grandlake.Net

Ever since then there have been arguments on the official name of Grand Lake,
actually these arguments have been going on way before we ever came online.

This is probably the best argument of all:

"Dear Grand Lake Net, The name of the lake is Grand Lake St Marys because it
is in St Marys, duh!"

"Dear Duh, Not only is Grand Lake not in St Marys, it is completely outside of
St Marys. In fact the lake doesn't even touch the border of the St Marys city limits.
A more realistic name would be Grand Lake Celina or even Grand Lake Montezuma,
since both of these towns at least border on Ohio's other Great Lake."

But we wanted to be open, so we made an offer that lasted over a year.

Here is the offer we made:

"We realize that some of you from St Marys are upset at our choice to call the
large body of water between Celina and St Marys Ohio "Grand Lake Ohio."

"We realize the that you deem it is important to have the name St Marys included
in the name of Grand Lake."

"So for your convenience we registered GrandLakeStMarys.Net and will pay all fees
to maintain this site for your use."

"This site is up for grabs to anyone who wants to build it
and put the name St Marys in Grand Lake. All we ask is
that you use the site to promote Grand Lake "whatever you want to call it"

During this one year promotion we had only 1 volunteer who tried to turn the site into
an online gaming portal that had nothing to do with Grand Lake anything,
and yes he was from St Marys, Ohio.

Also during this 1 year period we received 112 e-mail messages (all from
St Marys Ohio residents) informing us to add St Marys to the name of
Grand Lake Net. We already did that with GrandLakeStMarys.Net.

Not a single one of those who e-mailed us were willing to put any
effort into helping us build a Grand Lake St Marys web site.

We decided that we are no longer going to play this silly game.
It's Grand Lake Ohio as far as we (and our 5,000 visitors a day) are concerned.

Still we bounce all e-mail inquiries about Grand Lake to the local
Convention and Visitor's Bureau (CVB) in St Marys.

The CVB replies to these e-mail messages from our visitors interested
in Grand Lake, but they will not reply to any messages directly from us.

We may in the future turn off this bounce and start answering Grand Lake
related questions ourselves. See: Who's Running the Show?

We have since cut off all forwarding to the Convention and Visitors Bureau
and now have a better system to reply to visitors interested in Grand Lake Ohio.

Please see ask @ grandlake.net for info on how we handle e-mail from our visitors.
It's unique but works really well.

If you want to build a Grand Lake St Marys website, we encourage you to do so,
check out: Your-Website-Domain.Com

Please don't e-mail us with pseudo-facts and innuendoes
or threaten to 'kick our ass' if we don't change our name to include St Marys.

If you are that interested in the name St Marys
then check out the other 100,000+ St Marys sites on the Internet.

The final answer:
The name "Grand Lake" became a BGN decision by default when the USBGN dis-approved the proposal to change the name "Grand Lake" to "Grand Lake-Saint Marys".
United States Board on Geographic Names > Grand Lake, Ohio

Follow-Ups:
Community Message Board

Please relax and "Have a Nice Day!" and thanks for visiting Grand Lake Ohio online
or Go to: www.grandlakeSTMARYS.net

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