Name changes: Who put the caribou in Caribou?

    This bit of Caribou history is one of many compiled by former Caribou Public Librarian Wendy Bosse.
    As we celebrate Caribou’s 150th birthday, we are reminded of the problem the settlers had naming the town. Was it to be Lyndon: Or should it be named Caribou after the Caribou Stream that flowed through the village.     Clara Piper helps us to understand the situation. “It is interesting to read of the changes of names of the new town and to guess what friction and aroused feeling were behind the controversy.
    Lyndon annexed Letter I, Sheridan and Eaton Grant on Feb. 12, 1869, Fourteen days later the legislature by petition, changed the name of the town to Caribou. Eleven days later, on March 9, the name of the town was changed back to Lyndon, which it remained for eight years until 1877 when the name was changed back to Caribou.
    This evidently was a struggle between the section that had grown up around the Caribou Stream where the business of the town was located and at the portion of Letter H beyond Prestile Hill where the original settlements had been made.
    Evidently my ancestors belonged to the Lyndon faction as in my youth I frequently heard the remark that Lyndon was a much prettier name than Caribou.”