The Legend of Nurumbega

Nurumbega, or Norembega, is a legendary settlement in northeastern North America which appeared on many early maps from the 1500s until American colonization. The houses were said to have pillars of gold and the inhabitants carried quarts of pearls on their heads.

In 1542 Jean Allefonsce reported that he had coasted south from Newfoundland and had discovered a great river. It often appeared on subsequent European maps of North America, lying south of Acadia in what is now New England. The town of Bangor, Maine, embraced the legend in the nineteenth century, naming their municipal hall "Nurumbega Hall". In 1886 inventor Joseph Barker Stearns built a mansion named "Nurumbega Castle", which still stands on US Route 1 in Camden, Maine, overlooking Penobscot Bay.

In the late 19th century, Eben Norton Horsford linked the name and legend of Nurumbega to supposed Norse settlements on the Charles River, and built the Nurumbega Tower at the confluence of Stony Brook and the Charles in Weston, Massachusetts, where he believed Fort Nurumbega was located. In honour of Horsford's generous donations to Wellesley College, a building named Nurumbega Hall was dedicated in 1886 and celebrated in a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

The word "Nurumbega" was originally spelt Oranbega in Giovanni da Verrazzano's 1529 map of America, and the word is believed to derive from one of the Algonquian languages spoken in New England. It may mean "quiet place between the rapids" or "quiet stretch of water".

Today, the myth is reflected in such place-names as Nurumbega Mountain (formerly Brown Mountain) in Acadia National Park.