THIRD LAKE RIDGE refers to the third of four major lakes on the river (later the Yahara) that the surveyors found while charting the Wisconsin Territory, as they worked their way from South to North in 1836. Decades later, following the development of the Village of Madison, and subsequently the City of Madison in 1856, the lakes were given names derived from Native American names. The Third Lake was named Lake Monona, though the ridge of land along its Northern shore continued to be called the Third Lake ridge by old-timers into the early 20th Century.