Actually, the Columbia River (a River of America, don'cha know) is named for the ship which traveled up it!

From Wikipedia:
"On May 11, 1792, Captain Robert Gray became the first European to sail into the Columbia River. Gray traveled to the Pacific Northwest to trade for fur in a privately-owned vessel named Columbia; he named the river after the ship."

That's true (as I was forced to learn year after year in elementary school), but the Sailing Ship Columbia is named after the first American Naval ship to circumnaviate the globe. The U.S.S. Columbia. Also started the tradition of the Navy having a U.S.S. Columbia (there have been seven, plus the space shuttle Columbia).

There was, in fact, the first U.S.S. Columbia, but she was preceded by two other U.S. Navy ships named Columbia. One of which was captained by Robert Gray (Captain Robert Gray) who had previously captained her sister ship, the Lady Washington, a replica of which some of our dear readers have seen in person, and has had a featured role in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This Columbia is, in fact, the model for the ship at Disneyland, or, as the man says, "An exact replicer of the first American vessel to completely circle the globe." I think he means by sailing, otherwise, well, let's just say that would be a pretty big ship.

Well... here's the LA Times article on the rumored changes...

Still just speculation, though...

You know, I have a very solid memory that the plaque at the loading dock says that the ship is designed after the U.S.S. Columbia rather than Robert Gray's ship (both circumanvigated the globe, Gray's was the first to do it under U.S. flag and the Navy's was the first U.S. Navy ship to do it) but in poking around the usual sources I find that they all say I'm wrong.

Oh well. However, most of them (including Dave Smith in Disney A to Z) also say that the Columbia (whichever one) was the first ship to circumnaviate the globe, which is also wrong. That honor goes to the Victoria, the only one of Magellan's original five vessal fleet to make it all the way around the world in 1521.

In the speal on the Columbia, they say it is first US ship to circumnavigate the globe, but I think it's the first US Navy ship to circumnavigate (in 1838). According to the state of Utah, both are right:

"... WHEREAS, the space shuttle Columbia was named after the Boston,
Massachusetts-based sloop captained by American Robert Gray, who on May 11, 1792
maneuvered the Columbia past the dangerous sandbar at the mouth of a river extending more
that 1,000 miles through what is today south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and the
Washington-Oregon border, which river now bears the ship's name;
WHEREAS, this same 18th century sailing vessel became the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe;
WHEREAS, the first United States Navy Ship to circle the globe also bore the name Columbia"

Yeah, I knew both ships circumnavigated the globe. I just had it my head that the story that it was modeled after the earlier of the two was a misconception.

Apparently I wrong. In poking around more I've found an interview with Ray Wallace, the architect behind the Sailing Ship Columbia and he is quite explicit that the Columbia Rediviva (the earlier Robert Gray ship) was the model.

Yesterday, on KROQ morning radio's Kevin & Bean Show they started off the Ralph's Showbiz Report with "Sad news for diehard Disneyland fans". He told about the planned changes to TSA and then went on to quote an article from a popular Disney fan website.

The Disneyland Columbia spiel also says the "mighty Columbia river" was named for the counterpart of the Disneyland vessel. Is that a wrongity?

No, as I explained above, I apparently got some incorrect information lodged in my brain (and I'm strill trying to figure out how it got in there).