Even though I've read the USGS's name taken in vain because
of the habits of its mapmakers, I've stayed quietly on the
sidelines of the possessive apostrophe contention.

But now I want to add one little correction.* (Hey, corrections
are my life!) What we commonly call the possessive case--often
signaled by the _'s_--is technically the genitive case, of which
possession is only one of a number of relations indicated by
the genitive.

To say "Steller's Jay," for example, is only to say the the Jay
PERTAINS in some way to Steller.

Or if I say say that my brother's distant ancestor was
an australopithecine, I make no claims at all about my brother's
possessions.

--cheers, Jim Lyles, Tacoma