Lil’ wiki for ya all’: The highway is named after Kancamagus (pronounced "cain-kah-MAW-gus", "Fearless One"), third and final sagamore of the Penacook Confederacy of Native American tribes. Nephew of Wonalancet and grandson of Passaconaway, Kancamagus ruled what is now southern New Hampshire. After English settlers arrested a number of Pennacook tribe members, he was forced to make the decision in 1691 to move north into upper New Hampshire and what is now Quebec, Canada.

On February 9, 2004, University of Massachusetts Amherst student Maura Murray crashed her car on Route 112 near Woodsville. She disappeared shortly after this incident and her fate remains unknown.