Do You Know How Maine’s Christmas Cove Got Its Name?

With Christmas coming it is a great time to recognize a beautiful Maine community with an interesting story behind its name!

Christmas Cove on Rutherford Island, which is part of South Bristol, has a long and interesting history involving a character many people know from a popular children's movie.

This area of Maine was a busy place all the way back in the 1600's with english explorers coming to map the area as well as fishermen. It was also home to a part of the Abenaki Tribe during this time and before that!

One of the english explorers who came to the area and is credited to naming the beautiful cove is none other than John Smith! Now history is not exactly as you've seen in Pocahontas from Disney, but John Smith was an english explorer. In fact he even explored Christmas Cove and more of Maine's shores.

The legend says that Smith was anchored in the safe harbor at Christmas Cove on Christmas of 1614 and that is why he gave it this name!

History, much like Disney movies, tells the story a little different. According to reports Smith was in the area around August of 1614 but had left before Christmas. Some reports say he could have been in the cove on Christmas, but not in 1614.

See more on Christmas Cove here.