738 names were submitted to the Lebanon Daily News in just a two week period. Paul J. Callahan, the Special Projects Coordinator for The H&K Group, felt the response was overwhelming, showing the pride the people in Cornwall and the surrounding communities have for the incredible work of the miners in the Open Pit for over 235 years.
I had an opportunity to peruse the names prior to the distribution to the judges, said Callahan, and all I can say it that I'm glad I was not one of the judges. People were incredibly clever connecting historical facts into lake names, it was like reading a history book on the Open Pit.
On April 26th the eclectic group of judges, comprised of local business leaders, former miners and family members, teachers, historians, legal and real estate experts all met to review the names submitted to the Lebanon Daily News' in their "NAME THE LAKE" contest. Each had narrowed down the list to their top three choices prior to the meeting. After three hours of deliberation and amicable discussion, the three finalists which emerged were:
1. LAKE OREBEGONE
2. LAKE CANNONBALL
3. HISTORIC MINERS LAKE
The Lebanon Daily News will publish the names of the three final choices in the Thursday, April 28, 2011 edition of the paper. Voters will then have until May 9, 2011 to select the name they prefer as their first choice. The winning name will be published in the May 13, 2011 edition of the Lebanon Daily News and on their Facebook site.
Since there were multiple entries for each of the winning names, H&K has come up with a unique method to break the ties. Each contestant who submitted one of the winning names will be notified and invited to a cookout on the proposed hotel site. After dinner there will be three drums with the names of each of the people who submitted that winning name and Cornwall Mayor Mark Thomas will randomly select one name from each drum which will decide who wins the prize for each of the three final choices for the name of the lake.
We appreciate all of the work of the judges, the participants in the contest, and the staff at the Lebanon Daily News. Thank you for taking the time to help us in this historical undertaking.