Lake Chargoggagoggman chauggagoggchau bunagungamaugg

"You fish on your side I will fish on my side and no one will fish in the middle."

Text Score by Pauline Oliveros, November 19, 1981

Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg has become famous beyond Central Massachusetts for having the longest name of any geographic feature in all of the United States. The lake's name comes from Loup, an Algonquian language, and is often said to mean, "Fishing Place at the Boundaries—Neutral Meeting Grounds”. 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, one of it being "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, and no one shall fish in the middle”.