Kancamagus was the last sachem, or leader, of the once powerful Pennacook Confederacy. Placed along the highway that bears his name, this cache is an easy find and meant to let cachers know a little more about the man. Kancamagus took control of the Confederacy in the late 1670s, probably after the death of his uncle, Wonalancet. However, unlike his uncle, who was a peaceful man, Kancamagus waged war on the English settlements for a number of years. The Pennacook Sachem appealed to the governor of New Hampshire in 1685, Edward Cranfield, for help in protecting his people from the warmongering Mohawks to the west, only Cranfield essentially betrayed them, leading to multiple raids on the Pennacook by the Mohawk. Kancamagus firmly believed that it was Cranfield's duty to protect the Pennacook based on the peace treaty Kancamagus's grandfather, Passaconaway, signed in 1644, and when Cranfield deliberately failed this, Kancamagus turned to open warfare.
Kancamagus led a number of raids on neighboring English settlements for a handful of years until his family was kidnapped by the English in Maine in 1690. Kancamagus was forced to agree to sign a peace treaty along with a number of other tribes, but when it came time to actually sign the treaty, none of the Native American tribes showed up. While it's not known why that happened, it is believed that Kancamagus died shortly after agreeing to sign the treaty and none of the other tribes wanted to sign an agreement without the most powerful sachem in the Pennacook Confederacy.