When Windham’s 250th birthday came about in 1987, it was deemed appropriate for the town to have a “new” logo or identifying mark, and this logo is still in use today. It features an inkhorn and in the background, Inkhorn Brook. The artwork was done by Dana Plummer.

Probably Windham is the only town in the world, which has an Inkhorn Brook. How did that happen?

A chapter in Frederick Dole’s small, gray “History of Windham” tells readers that a small stream with three branches originates at Sawyer’s Hill in adjoining Westbrook. The middle branch rises to a swamp on the east side of Canada Hill. The three small branches come together and form a brook, which empties into the Presumpscot River near the boundary of Windham and Westbrook.

No mills appear on this brook, as there are no significant falls, but it was always known as a good fishing spot.

The brook with no name became important in the old days when surveyor Rowland Houghton of Massachusetts came here to lay out and measure all attributes of this new town.

Among his surveyor instruments and tools was an inkhorn – a piece of an animal’s horn, hollowed out to hold the powder that when mixed with water, made ink.

Houghton started surveying in Westbrook at the Saccarappa Falls and as he made his way up the Presumpscot, came to this usually small brook – now overflowing with the spring rains and runoff. He and his helpers struggled to get across the brook and in the process, he dropped the inkhorn. No report is given as to how he wrote measurements after that – but they remembered and named the brook for the lost inkhorn.

The town seal of Windham features Inkhorn Brook, which has an interesting derivation.