Green Lake has had three names. The Dakota, who spent their summers here for hundreds of years, called it Mdeto. The first whites called it Carnelian for its red sandy beaches. Later settlers observed the green color, as the Indians had, and renamed it Green Lake. Spicer has had two names. The town boomers who laid it out in August, 1856—E. T. Woodcock, J. M. Ayers, and V. L. Forsythe—called it Columbia. E. T. Woodcock and his wife, Loretta, spent the winter of 1856–57 in Columbia. Spicer was named for pioneer railroader J. M. Spicer, who owned the town site and built his St. Cloud to Sioux Falls Railroad through here in 1886.