SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah state commission is recommending preserving the name of Utah's Negro Bill Canyon after receiving conflicting information over whether the name is offensive.
The Utah Committee on Geographic Names said Friday that lack of consensus from minority groups led to its 8-2 vote Thursday.
The commission's recommendation goes to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is expected to make a decision on canyon's name later this year.
The local and national branches of the NAACP told the commission the name is not offensive and preserves the history of a canyon named for a black cowboy whose cattle grazed there in the 1870s.
The Utah Martin Luther King Jr. Commission was among groups that wanted the name changed. It said the word negro is a "racially offensive descriptor."
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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