as is the case with many places in the area, machias was named by the passamaquoddy people. the name machias means, “bad little falls”, a reference to the falls the run through town. while not the most impressive falls you might ever see, i imagine the passamaquoddy wanting to warn folks about the stretch of rive that might result in a bad little fall if you ever went over the falls.

turns out, the falls were also a great location for setting up a saw mill and the town was officially “settled” in 1763 ( although it has a long history prior to that date ), when one of odin’s relatives joined with 16 others came to the area to build a saw mill next to the bad little falls.