 The first white settler to take a donation claim by the lake, Henry de la Bushalier, tried to rename the lake after himself.That faded away with his death one year later.In 1890 the area was renamed "Lake Park" as a planned community by the Lake Park Land, Railway and Improvement Company, which bought all the nearby land east of the lake and built a rail line to its "recreation mecca" on the shore of "Spanaway Lake."