DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The director of the Baxter State Park Authority is floating the idea dropping the “Mount” from Maine’s “Mount Katahdin.”
Eben Sypitkowski told Piscataquis County Commissioners in an email that Katahdin gets its name from an Abenaki or Penobscot words that mean “greatest mountain.” Therefore, he said there’s no need for the word “Mount.” That’s redundant, akin to calling it “Mount Greatest Mountain,” he said.
He wrote that he reached out to the USGS Board of Geographic Names about changing the name of the summit. He told commissioners he wanted feedback on a township that also bears the Mount Katahdin name.
He got a tepid response.
Chairman James White said commissioners this week weren’t convinced the Katahdin name change is necessary — especially considering the cost of changing maps and signs.
He said it’s a different scenario than the renaming of Big Squaw Mountain, now Big Moose Mountain. In that case, the term “squaw” was offensive to Native Americans and there was widespread support for changing the mountain’s name, he said.
“If someone presents us with an actual evidence of a need, then we’ll revisit the situation,” White said Thursday. “But I don’t think it’ll go anywhere.”
The state’s tallest mountain is the northern terminus of Appalachian Trail, and is popular with hikers. Naturalist Henry David Thoreau climbed the mountain in the 1840s and wrote about his experience in his book, “The Maine Woods.”
The Associated Press
