Lake Chaubunagungamaug

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Lake Chaubunagungamaug
Location Webster, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°02′30″N 71°50′30″W / 42.04167°N 71.84167°W / 42.04167; -71.84167Coordinates: 42°02′30″N 71°50′30″W / 42.04167°N 71.84167°W / 42.04167; -71.84167
Basin countries United States
Max. length 3.25 mi (5.23 km)
Max. width 1.125 mi (1.811 km)
Surface area 1,442 acres (584 ha)
Shore length1 17 mi (27 km)
Surface elevation 477 feet (145 m)
Islands 8
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Chaubunagungamaug, also known as Webster Lake, is a lake in the town of Webster, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near the Connecticut border and has a surface area of 1,442 acres (5.84 km2).

Name

The lake's name comes from Nipmuc, an Algonquian language, and is said to mean, "Fishing Place at the Boundaries -- Neutral Meeting Grounds".[1] This is different from the humorous translation, "You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fish in the middle", thought to have been invented by the late Laurence J. Daly, editor of The Webster Times.[2]

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (/ˌleɪk tʃəˈɡɒɡəɡɒɡ ˌmænˈtʃɔːɡəɡɒɡ tʃəˌbʌnəˈɡʌŋɡəmɔːɡ/),[3] a 45-letter alternative name for this body of fresh water, is often cited as the longest place name in the United States and one of the longest in the world. It is not spelled correctly on the sign bordering Connecticut.[4]

Today, "Webster Lake" may be the name most used, but some (including many residents of Webster), take pride in reeling off the longer versions.

This lake has several alternative names. Lake Chaubunagungamaug is the name of the lake as recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior,[4] however, many area residents, as well as the official website of the town of Webster, consider the longer version correct.[5]

Algonquian-speaking peoples had several different names for the lake as recorded on old maps and historical records. However, all of these were similar in part and had almost the same translation. Among other early names were "Chabanaguncamogue" and "Chaubanagogum".[6] Early town records show the name as "Chabunagungamaug Pond", also the name of the local Nipmuc town (recorded in 1668 and 1674 with somewhat different spellings). This has been translated as 'boundary fishing place',[7] but something close to "fishing place at the boundary" or "that which is a divided island lake" may be more accurate.[8]

A map of 1795, showing the town of Dudley, indicated the name as "Chargoggaggoggmancogmanhoggagogg". A survey of the lake done in 1830 lists the name as "Chaubunagungmamgnamaugg", the older name. The following year, both Dudley and Oxford, which then adjoined the lake, filed maps listing the name as "Chargoggagoggmanchoggagogg".[6]

"Manchaug" is derived from the "Monuhchogogoks", a group of Nipmuc that lived by the lakeshore. Spellings of the long name vary, even on official signs near the lake; in 2009, following six years of press reports, the local Chamber of Commerce agreed to have the spelling corrected on its signs, where a 45-letter version of the name arrayed in a semicircle was used. It did not correspond to any of the two dozen variants in the GNIS.[9] Webster schools use one long form of the name in various capacities.[6][10]

Three songs about the lake's name have been written. The first was a regional song from the 1930s. The second was recorded by Ethel Merman and Ray Bolger and released in 1954 by Decca and incorporates the tale about the lake's name according to Daly. The most recent was released in 2010 by Diane Taraz.

A patch with the name of the lake

In the 1950s, a plan to shorten the official name of the lake inspired a poem of doggerel verse which concludes:

"Touch not a g!" No impious hand
Shall wrest one from that noble name
Fifteen in all their glory stand
And ever shall the same.
For never shall that number down,
Tho Gogg and Magogg shout and thunder;
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg's renown
Shall blaze, the beacon of the town,

While nations gaze and wonder.[11]

Geography

Webster Lake is a 1,270-acre (5.1 km2) [12] lake with a 17-mile (27 km) shoreline in southern Massachusetts, near the Connecticut border. It is the second largest fresh body of water in Massachusetts. The largest fresh body of water is Long Pond at 1,721 acres in Lakeville, Massachusetts.[13] The average depth is 13 feet (4.0 m) and the maximum depth is 45 feet (14 m).[14]

Although the lake is natural in origin, its outlet has a dam that raises the water level by a couple feet. The dam is owned by Cranston Print Works, which controls the water level.[citation needed]

The lake is commonly divided into three smaller bodies of water: North Pond, Middle Pond, and South Pond. They are connected by narrow channels.[citation needed]

Islands

Webster Lake has about 7–8 islands. Some have houses and are habitable; a few are extremely small and uninhabitable. They include:

  • Long Island: The largest island in Webster Lake. It has many homes and has electric power lines, underground/underwater municipal water and sewer service, and several fire hydrants. It is in the Middle Pond.
  • Goat Island: The second largest island. It has a few homes and boats. It is in the Middle Pond but isolated from the cluster of islands that include Long Island.
  • Well Island: A smaller island with one house west of Long Island in the Middle Pond.
  • Strip Island: Generally northeast of Long Island and north of Cobble Island with one house, also in the Middle Pond.
  • Cobble Island: East of Long Island, in the Middle Pond.
  • Little Island: In South Pond, right out of the no wake zone from the Middle Pond, one house.

Marinas

Webster lake has two marinas:

  • Lakeview Marine: The only full service marine store and service shop on Webster Lake.
  • Point Breeze: A restaurant with a small marina. Point Breeze Marina has the only dockside gas pump on the lake.

Pop Culture

On the show, Gilmore Girls, (Season 6, Episode 6) Kirk offers the name "Chargogagogmanchogagogcharbunagunggamog" as a potential street name for the Dragonfly Inn. He says the Nipmuc Indian name is said to mean, "You fish on your side of the lake; I'll fish on my side and no one will fish in the middle." According to Kirk, it could also mean "buffalo."[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Patenaude, Ed (June 28, 2001). "Fabrication leaves us gasping - Old twist to name of lake comes to light". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Retrieved 2011-05-31. 
  2. ↑ Knapton, Sarah (April 22, 2009). "Longest Place Name in US Spelt Wrongly". The Telegraph (London). Retrieved March 28, 2012. 
  3. ↑ ,
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Lake Chaubunagungamaug". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2011-04-14. 
  5. ↑ Town of Webster, accessed January 15, 2007.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Old Webster History
  7. ↑ Trumbull, James Hammond. 1881. Indian Names of Places etc., In and On the Borders of Connecticut: With interpretations of Some of Them. Reprinted in facsimile 1974 under title Indian Names in Connecticut by Archon Books, Hamden, Conn.
  8. ↑ Goddard, Ives. 1974. Untitled review of Trumbull in International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 43, No. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 157–159, University of Chicago Press.
  9. ↑ Brian Lee (2009-04-14). "Misspelling on Lake Signs to Get Overdue Correction". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 
  10. ↑ Nipmuc Place Names of New England
  11. ↑ Poem by Bertha A. Joslin.
  12. ↑ Lake's characteristics
  13. ↑ http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pdf/dfwlongl.pdf accessdate=2011-05-31
  14. ↑ http://www.websterlakeassociation.com/GeneralInterest/LakeMaps.htm Webster Lake Association.
  15. ↑ "Gilmore Girls 6x6 transcript". Retrieved 4 December 2013. 

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