Arawana now Quinnetucket Golf Course

The Arawana Golf Course will now be known as the Quinnetucket Golf Course. (the site of the third green is pictured at left)

Quinnetucket is how some of the first Europeans who visited the area pronounced and spelled the Native American word that became Connecticut, meaning, "Long Tidal River," or "Long River."

Jennifer White-Dobbs, Director of Education at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, Conn. told me that there is no official way to spell Quinnetucket since the first dictionary in the United States did come about until the early 1800s, some 150 years after Europeans journeyed here. She has seen at least 8 spellings of the word including, Quinetucket and Quinnetuket.

While I liked Arawana because that was the name of the first golf club and then golf course in Middletown, there were some problems. The large bridge that crosses from Middletown to Portland is the, Arrigoni -- once known as the Arrawanna Brige. The (How should I put this?) very, very inexpensive hotel on Main Street was once known as the Arrawani, and as has been pointed out to me buy a number of friends, Arawana rhymes with marijuana. For me, all these factors added up to a name change and after mulling a few alternatives, I settled on Quinnetucket.

As you read this, a logo is being developed and it should make it's worldwide debut in no time.