Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (aka Lake Chaubunagungamaug) is a lake near Webster, Massachusetts.
The meaning of Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is attributed to the Nipmuc tribe. “Fishing Place at the Boundaries—Neutral Meeting Grounds” is the most common translation However local legend had it a different way:
According to this article in a 2014 New York Times article:
There is more consensus on the meaning of Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, but it turns out the consensus is wrong. In the 1920’s, a reporter for The Webster Times, Lawrence J. Daly, wrote that it was a Nipmuck Indian word meaning “You fish on your side, I fish on my side and nobody fishes in the middle.” That stuck even though Mr. Daly confessed repeatedly that he had made the whole thing up.
The lake consists of three smaller ponds: North Pond, Middle Pond and Small Pond.
These three postcards, from the 50s and 60s show the lake and the ridiculousness of putting a name like Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg on a sign.
