MAINE, Maine — Maine's highest peak could possibly get some rebranding - that is if left up to Baxter State Park Director Eben Sypitkowski.
Sypitkowski told NEWS CENTER Maine's Bill Green in August he wants people to stop calling the famous mountain 'Mount Katahdin' and just Katahdin.
In an interview for Bill Green's Maine Sypitkowski, says it's redundant to call the peak Mount before the name because Katadhin means the greatest mountain in Wabanki languages. Sypitkowski says calling the peak Mount Katahdin is a grammatical error and cultural error.
The mountain is already commonly called just 'Katahdin' though the official name, 'Mount Katahdin' was decided by the US Board of Geographic Names in 1893.
The Bangor native and Bates graduate took over as the director of the park in 2018.
Piscataquis County Manager Michael Williams tells NEWS CENTER Maine Sypitkowski sent him an email on Aug. 30 saying that he had applied for a name change for the summit of the mountain with the USGS Board on Geographic Names and that he was trying to figure out how to approach the township name.
In the email to Willaims, Sypitkowski says he wants the name change to address "the grammatical and cultural error that have led us to call the mountain "Mount Katahdin."
The impressive 5,267-foot peak of Mount Katahdin which is the centerpiece of Baxter State Park sits in Mount Katahdin Township, an unorganized territory.
Williams has not formed an opinion on the proposal to change the name yet but says when he spoke to Sypitkowski on the phone in early September he expressed concern for the financial impact of changing the name for maps, signs, and businesses in the area.
Williams says Sypitkowski was calling asking Williams for what public opinion might be to the change. Williams said he would likely encounter pushback from people simply because no one likes change.
At least one Maine opinion is that of Bill Green who has been reporting on the famous peak and surrounding area for more than four decades.
"If someone calls it Mount Katahdin, what are we going to do, give them a ticket?" jokes Green.
"The Abenaki word for river is “scot” as in Penobscot, Presumpscot and Pejepscot. If Eben’s point is precedent, we should say Penob River, Presump River and so forth. "Keag" is the Abenaki word for stream. Should we call it the Kendus Stream Canoe Race? It's fun to talk about and I think we should learn more about the Abenaki language. However, I don’t think saying “Mount Katahdin” is a redundancy," says Green.
"If he's talking about the summit, I think he's technically correct," Green adds. "However, we're not that precise a people."
The name change is expected to be discussed at the Baxter Park Authority meeting at Kidney Pond on October 4.
