Lake Chaubunagungamaug

The lake's name comes from the Algonquian language of the Nipmuc and is often said to mean, "Fishing Place at the Boundaries—Neutral Meeting Grounds".{{cite news|url=http://www.websterlakeassociation.com/GeneralInterest/Fabricationleavesusgasping.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030723082834/http://websterlakeassociation.com/GeneralInterest/Fabricationleavesusgasping.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 23, 2003 |title=Fabrication leaves us gasping - Old twist to name of lake comes to light |last=Patenaude |first=Ed |date=June 28, 2001 |work=Worcester Telegram & Gazette |access-date=May 31, 2011 }} A more fitting translation is "lake divided by islands", according to anthropologist Ives Goddard.

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,{{cite gnis|619290|Lake Chaubunagungamaug|2011-04-14}} and is the name appearing in the earliest local records.

Algonquian-speaking people 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".[http://www.oldewebster.com/history/lake_chargogg.htm Old Webster History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514183435/http://oldewebster.com/history/lake_chargogg.htm |date=May 14, 2011 }}, from the Webster TIMES Centennial Anniversary Issue, 1859-1959. Early town records show the name as "Chabunagungamaug Pond", which was 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",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. but something close to "fishing place at the boundary" or "that which is a divided island lake" may be more accurate.Goddard, Ives. 1974. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1264936?seq=2 Untitled review of Trumbull] in International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 43, No. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 157–159, University of Chicago Press.

A 1795 map of Massachusetts indicated the name, using the long form's first eight syllables, as "Chargoggagoggmanchoggagogg".{{cite web|last1=Osgood|first1=Carleton|title=An accurate map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...|url=http://maps.bpl.org/id/10654|website=Boston Public Library|date=1795}} A survey of the lake done in 1830 lists the name as "Chaubunagungamaugg", the six-syllable older name. The following year, both Dudley and Oxford, which then adjoined the lake, filed maps listing the lake by its eight-syllable form, as "Chargoggagoggmanchoggagogg". Anthropologist Ives Goddard considers that 1831 name to be a cartographer's creation that corrupted the actual name while confusing this lake with nearby Manchaug Pond.

The exaggerated name "Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg" ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|l|eɪ|k|_|tʃ|ɚ|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|ɡ|ə|ɡ|ɒ|ɡ|ˌ|m|æ|n|ˈ|tʃ|ɔː|ɡ|ə|ɡ|ɒ|ɡ|tʃ|ə|ˌ|b|ʌ|n|ə|ˈ|ɡ|ʌ|ŋ|ɡ|ə|m|ɔː|ɡ}})[https://www.nytimes.com/audiopages/2004/11/19/national/20041120_LAKE_AUDIO.html "AUDIO: Singing a Name That's Hard to Say"], New York Times (November 19, 2004).[http://www.oldewebster.com/home_archive.htm "OldeWebster Photo Archive"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213043816/http://www.oldewebster.com/home_archive.htm |date=December 13, 2007 }} (Accessed September 16, 2015). is a 45-letter alternative name for this body of fresh water, often cited as the longest place name in the United States{{cite book|last=Ash|first=Russell|title=Boring, Botty and Spong|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bb-UfSQy7xYC&pg=PA68|date=10 November 2011|publisher=RHCP|isbn=978-1-4090-9739-6|page=68}} and one of the longest in the world. Many area residents and the official website of the town of Webster consider the longer version correct.[http://www.webster-ma.gov/ Town of Webster], accessed January 15, 2007.

Image:Patch of a lake with a really long name.jpgThe humorous translation is: "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, and no one shall fish in the middle". Its humorous translation was perhaps invented by Laurence J. Daly, editor of The Webster Times.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5198455/Longest-place-name-in-US-spelt-wrongly.html|title=Longest Place Name in US Spelt Wrongly|first=Sarah|last=Knapton|date=April 22, 2009|access-date=March 28, 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|location=London}} According to Ives Goddard, Curator of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution, Daly created this "monstrosity" around 1921, though this is probably not correct, as the name was in use as early as {{circa|1910}} on postcards.{{Cite news |date=1990-09-29 |title=Opinion {{!}} Time to Retire an Indian Place-Name Hoax |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/29/opinion/l-time-to-retire-an-indian-place-name-hoax-571390.html |access-date=2024-05-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

File:Postcard of Lake.jpg

Spellings of the long name vary; in 2009, following six years of press reports, the local Chamber of Commerce agreed to have the spelling changed on its signs, but a 45-letter version of the name arrayed in a semicircle is still used.{{cite news|title=Misspelling on Lake Signs to Get Overdue Correction|url=http://www.telegram.com/article/20090414/NEWS/904140367|author=Brian Lee|publisher=Worcester Telegram & Gazette|date=2009-04-14}} Webster public schools use one long form of the name in various capacities.[http://www.nativetech.org/Nipmuc/placenames/mainmass.html Nipmuc Place Names of New England]

File:Lake Chaubunagungamaug 1974 D3C1208-200302A010.jpg

Webster Lake is a {{convert|1442|acre|km2|adj=on}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20100309191053/http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pdf/dfwwebst.pdf "Webster Lake"], Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Commonwealth of Massachusetts (February 1998), via Archive.org lake with a {{convert|17|mi|km|adj=on}} shoreline in southern Massachusetts, near the Connecticut border. It is the fourth largest fresh body of water in Massachusetts, after slightly larger Long Pond, The Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton, and the much larger Quabbin Reservoir. The average depth is {{convert|13|ft|m}} and the maximum depth is {{convert|49|ft|m}}.[http://www.websterlakeassociation.org/WRSReports/WRS.BGA.Phase%201.2014.pdf "Webster Lake Cyanobacteria Investigation: Phase I"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053239/http://www.websterlakeassociation.org/WRSReports/WRS.BGA.Phase%201.2014.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }}, Prepared by Water Resource Services, Inc., for the Webster Lake Association (November 2014).

Although the lake is natural in origin, its outlet has a dam that raises the water level by roughly {{convert|2|ft|m}}.[http://www.websterlakeassociation.org/LakeAbout.shtml "About Webster Lake"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521225137/http://websterlakeassociation.org/LakeAbout.shtml |date=May 21, 2019 }}, Webster Lake Association. Accessed September 6, 2015. The dam initially provided water for a mill, and subsequently, the water rights to the lake were owned by Cranston Print Works; currently, the dam is owned by Webster Lake Preservation LLC.

The lake is commonly divided into three smaller bodies of water: North Pond, Middle Pond, and South Pond. Narrow channels connect them.

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, electric power lines, underground/underwater municipal water and sewer service, and several fire hydrants. It is in the Middle Pond.
• Goat Island is 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 includes 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 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.
• Birch Island: Large island on the west edge of Middle Pond with Pout Pond on the west side and swamp surrounding the entire island. It is located roughly between Treasure Island and The Narrows and has access by a bridge on Birch Island Road near The Narrows. Many homes are on the island, and an establishment once called Birch Island Pavilion is now called Waterfront Mary's.
• Misery Island is a small island near the east side of Narrows in Middle Pond. May be called either Misery Island or Skunk Island, depending on the map.

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.

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

{{poemquote|"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;

{{shy|Char|gogg|a|gogg|man|chaugg|a|gogg|chau|bun|a|gung|a|maugg}}'s renown

Shall blaze, the beacon of the town,

While nations gaze and wonder.[http://www.oldewebster.com/history/evolution.htm Poem by Bertha A. Joslin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815072422/http://www.oldewebster.com/history/evolution.htm |date=August 15, 2020 }}.}}

Three songs about the lake's name have been written. The first was a regional song from the 1930s. The second, "The Lake Song ({{shy|Char|gogg|a|gogg|man|chaugg|a|gogg|chau|bun|a|gung|a|maugg}})", 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 the name's inventor, Laurence J. Daly, editor of The Webster Times. The most recent was released in 2010 by Diane Taraz.

• List of long place names
• Longest word in English
• Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, the longest place name in New Zealand, and the world
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the longest place name in the UK
• Longest words
• Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck
• Chaubunagungamaug Reservation
• Polysynthetic language

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Lake Chaubunagungamaug}}

{{wiktionary|Chaubunagungamaug}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20010422220234/http://www.oldewebster.com/history/lake_chargogg.htm A history of the lake]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/national/20lake.html NY Times - What's the Name of That Lake? It's Hard to Say]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhL4rg7yO4E Listen to the Lake Song]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110519083439/http://www.websterlakerealty.com/webster-lake-boat-tours-webster-ma/ Webster Lake Real Estate Boat Tours]
• [https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2019/02/20/webster_lake.pdf MassWildlife Map and Info]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061016070904/http://www.websterlakeassociation.com/images/Maps/Watershed25%25.jpg Map of the area watershed]
• [http://www.websterlake.net/pictures.htm Lake Chaubunagungamaugg photos 1]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060829163809/http://www.websterlake.net/ariel.htm Lake Chaubunagungamaugg photos 2]

{{Massachusetts lakes and ponds}}

{{authority control}}

Chaubunagungamaug

Chaubunagungamaug

Category:Webster, Massachusetts