Virginia might concede to NC-backed name of Kerr Lake

For 63 years, a lake on the North Carolina-Virginia line has suffered from an identity crisis.

Now, after decades of disagreement about the lake’s name, Virginia may finally be ready to yield.

To Virginians, it’s been Buggs Island Lake since the Roanoke River was dammed in 1952. North Carolina insisted it was Kerr Lake.

Virginia lawmakers once ordered all government agencies to refer to it as Buggs Island Lake, its “true and proper name.”

However, Virginia state Sen. Frank Ruff, a Republican from Mecklenburg County, Va., which includes the lake, won unanimous committee approval Thursday for his bill to allow state and local agencies to refer to it as Kerr Lake or John H. Kerr Reservoir.

The name honors the North Carolina congressman who was instrumental in its creation. Virginia’s preferred name came from an island inundated by the lake that was owned by a family named Bugg.

Ruff said Mecklenburg’s tourism director suggested a more uniform approach would clear up confusion among visitors.

Besides the problem of the dueling names, Ruff said, calling the lake Buggs Island has the unfortunate side effect of suggesting it is insect-infested.

Does this mean Virginia is ready to surrender in the long-running tiff with its neighbor to the south?

“I think everybody’s forgotten the war,” Ruff said.