Lake Winnisquam

Winnisquam's name is Abenaki, and like most of the region's lake names its exact meaning is debated. The traditional translation is "good salmon fishing place"; a more careful scholarly reading is closer to "there is freshwater fishing hereabouts." Both agree on the important part. The Abenaki lived and fished around Winnisquam and its big neighbor until colonists arrived in the mid-1700s.

Winnisquam's history has always run through its narrows. The two basins meet at the crossing between Laconia and Sanbornton, where a humped wooden bridge earned the nickname "Mosquito Bridge" back in the 1840s, a name locals still use for the spot. The railroad ran along the lake's eastern shore in the rail era, and that old right-of-way is now the WOW Trail, carrying walkers and cyclists where the trains once went.

Unlike Winnipesaukee, Winnisquam never got a grand hotel row or a steamboat fleet, and it wears that plainness well. It was the mill towns' lake, ringed by Laconia, Sanbornton, Belmont, Tilton, and Meredith, and it grew up as a lake of family camps and small beaches. That heritage is exactly what draws people now: the same water and sunsets as the big lake, at a friendlier pace and price.