The history behind the unique names a few Moosehead-area places
BY RICHARD SHAW
Did pachyderms really live on Elephant Mountain? What was carried around Northeast Carry? Did toothy rodents build dams at Beaver Cove? And how miserable was Misery Gore?
These and other burning questions have confounded Moosehead Lake area tourists for generations. But while it is generally accepted that the lake was named because, on a map, it resembles an antlered moose, most flatlanders realize that names aren’t always what they appear to be.
At least on signs, colorful words make good conversation starters. Just ask the residents of tiny Kokadjo, an end-of-the-blacktop settlement 18 miles north of Greenville, on the Lily Bay Road. An iconic moose-shaped welcome sign states its year-round population as “not many” (three, to be exact).
A while ago, locals replaced a blue-and-white sign with a more colorful attraction. What it doesn’t state is what the town’s odd name actually means — a shortened version of the Native American word for Kettle Mountain, which rises to the north.
“The earliest known reference to Kokadjo (also spelled Kokad-jo) … was in 1844, when a Deacon Ford built a camp at the mouth of the Roach River,” writes Everett L. Parker in his Arcadia Publishing pictorial “The Moosehead Lake Region: 1900-1950.”
Companion books on the region were compiled by Nathan D. Hamilton and Cynthia A. Thayer, and Suzanne M. AuClair. “Glimpses of Greenville” by William R. Sawtell provides yet another look into the area’s past.
Parker also examines the other K-settlement across the lake, Mount Kineo. He writes that the 1,788-foot mountain, whose name is derived from the legendary Wabanaki warrior, Kinneho, “… is an impressive sight with an almost sheer cliff that rises more than 700 feet from Moosehead Lake. … Five hotel buildings have been located [on the Kineo peninsula] …”
Stopping at the Moosehead Lake Visitor’s Center on Route 6 allows visitors a chance to pick up tourist information and scale a miniature Maine fire tower. The panoramic view may reveal 2,650-foot Elephant Mountain, the scene of a restored fatal 1963 B-52 bomber crash site which is open to the public.
Visitor’s center volunteers can explain how the mountain, and other area landmarks, got their names. Hint: from a distance, it resembles a large, lying elephant — not a common sight in the north woods.
More information can be gleaned at the region’s trifecta of historical museums — the Monson Historical Society, Moosehead Marine Museum (with the vintage Steamship Katahdin), and Moosehead Historical Society and Region Museums. Names of people, places, and things are sure to intrigue visitors.
Greenville’s Shaw Public Library staff may help fill in details of such questions as:
Q: How did Greenville, incorporated in 1836, get its name?
A: From the surrounding verdant woodlands.
Q: What is the origin of Borestone Mountain in Elliotsville Township?
A: Named for its geological position in the region, not for any particular resemblance.
Q: What inspired the names of the towns Monson and Shirley?
A: Monson and Shirley, Mass., Maine land grant partners.
Q: For whom was Greenville’s Pritham Avenue named?
A: Fred Pritham, M.D., the region’s longtime physician and subject of a 1971 biography by Dorothy Clarke Wilson.
Q: Who was Charles Augustus Dean, namesake of Greenville’s Northern Light hospital?
A: A pulp and paper company president who helped establish the hospital in 1911.
Q: How large is a legendary strip of land named Misery Gore, located near Rockwood, in Somerset County?
A: 17 miles long and a half-mile wide.
