City Council asked to ditch ‘Coon Creek’

On the same night USD 257 school board members agreed to eventually remove the “Fillies” moniker for Iola High School girls sports teams, Iola City Council members were asked to reconsider naming Coon Creek back to its original name — Small Creek.

The waterway zigzags through residential neighborhoods in north Iola before eventually emptying into the Neosho River.

Council members discussed the pros and cons of such a change before agreeing they’d like to hear from others in town before making a decision at their Dec. 9 meeting.

IOLA HIGH School senior Allie Utley — who also kick-started the Fillies-Mustangs debate — approached City Council members Monday about the creek.

It was known as Small Creek in Iola’s earliest years, but at some point was changed to Coon Creek between 1895 and 1900.

She recounted an incident over the summer, when she and a group of friends had asked a resident for directions.

“Take a left, head down Lincoln Street, and it’s just past Coon Creek,” the man replied.

“I distinctly remember all of us looking at one another in immense confusion, almost like we didn’t believe what the man had said,” Utley said.

In doing further research, Utley said she discovered the creek did not get its name for raccoons, but rather for the derogatory slur against African-Americans. She traced the word’s genesis to “barracoon,” an enclosure formerly used for temporary confinement of slaves or convicts.

She noted the creek’s name was changed from Small Creek to Coon Creek around 1900, when a proliferation of African-Americans began settling the area. 

Within a 10-year period, the black population of Allen County skyrocketed from 28 to 1,320, Utley noted, most of whom made their homes in Iola.

She found an Iola Register clipping from that era describing the neighborhood. 

“He thus obtained fine views of Coon Creek, the Negro shanties and the freight cars,” Utley read. 

“This was the type of language that was acceptable to put in newspapers in the early 1900s, around the same time period Coon Creek was given its new name,” Utley said. “But this is the 21st century.