From the Moosehead Historical Society

How Gracie Brook got its name.

Gracie Brook flows out of Fogg Pond into Upper Wilson Pond. The Moosehead Gazette 2/6/1953 edition contains a story about how Gracie Brook was named. On an ice fishing trip in March of 1885, a young lady called Gracie set off on snowshoes for an old logging camp. Her feet were encased in the wedding boots of her brother-in-law. She was accompanied by her father, George Varney and two brothers-in-law, Edwin O. Walden and John A. Curtis.

Starting before sunrise they reached the far shore of Upper Wilson Pond by eight-thirty. Gracie reports that she was about a mile and a half ahead of her father who could not snowshoe as fast due to a heart condition. Arriving at the foot of an immense hill, she waited for the others.

When they joined her, she delightedly raced at top speed to the bottom where she landed in a foot-and-a-half deep spring in ice water with snow packed in her snowshoes. She shares that she might as well have been in a vice…escape was impossible. Not daring to call out to her father for fear of exciting him, she simply stood there whistling and singing. When the men came her brother-in-law immediately sensed her situation, laughed and hastened to her rescue.

They reached the shelter, built a roaring fire, caught and ate some Mountain Pond trout. Mr. Grenell, a local millionaire, was quite amused by her story, and using his influence named the brook Gracie Brook.