How Could They Name it the Carp River When There Were No Carp?

A Michigan biologist wonders how the Carp River in his home state got its name, considering that the river was so named long before that particular fish was introduced. I turns out, just as in the rest of the Western Hemisphere, Europeans who migrated there applied their own European common names to similar-looking American flora and fauna, even when they weren’t taxonomically correct. For Michigan names before the arrival of Europeans, look to Indian Names in Michigan by Virgil Vogel (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.