Page "Green Bay (Lake Michigan)" Paragraph 4

The bay was named Baie des Puants ( literally, " Bay of the Stinkers ") during the French regime as attested by many French maps of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The stench apparently came from algae in the stagnant water of the bay.

According to George R. Stewart, the French received the name from their Indian guides, who called the Indians living near Green Bay by a derogatory word meaning " Stinkers ", thus the bay was the " Bay of the Stinkers " ( Stewart 1967: 88 ).