Mount Greylock

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Mount Greylock
Mount Greylock war memorial
Elevation	3,491 ft (1,064 m)
Location	Massachusetts–Berkshires
Range	Taconic
Coordinates	42°38′15″N, 73°10′00″W
First ascent	unknown
Easiest route	road

Mount Greylock is a mountain of 3,491 feet (1,064 m) in elevation, located in northwestern Massachusetts. It is the highest point in the state.

1 Location
2 History
3 Features
4 External links

[edit] Location

Mount Greylock is located in northwestern Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The summit is located in Adams, but the entire landform spreads into the towns of North Adams, Williamstown, Cheshire, New Ashford and Lanesborough. The mountain is composed of a north-south oriented central ridge: Saddle Ball Mountain (elev. 3,247 ft; 990 m), Mount Greylock (3,491 ft; 1,064 m), Mount Fitch (3,110 ft; 948 m) and Mount Williams (2,951 ft; 899 m); flanked by two subordinate ridges: on the west by Mount Prospect (2,690 ft; 820 m) and Stony Ledge (2,560 ft; 780 m), and on the east by Ragged Mountain (2,528 ft; 771 m).

Geographically, Mount Greylock forms an island-like range between the Hoosac Range to the east, the Green Mountains to the north, the Berkshire Hills to the south and east, and the Taconic Range to the west (with which it is closely associated in geology); all ranges are associated with the Appalachian Mountain Chain. The mountain generally rises 1,000 feet (305 m) above the surrounding landscape, where on a clear day views upwards to 70-100 miles (110-160 km) distant are possible into five different states: Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.

[edit] History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans the Mahican people were closely associated with this region. The traditional trade route connecting the tribes of the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys (today, Route 2, known as the Mohawk Trail) passes beneath the northern flank of Mount Greylock. The mountain was known to eighteenth century English settlers as Grand Hoosuc(k). In the early 19th century it was called Saddleback Mountain because of its appearance (Saddle Ball, the name of the peak to the south, still reflects this).

However, the origin of the present name of Greylock and its association with the mountain is unclear. It first appeared in print about 1819, and came into popular use by the 1830s. It may be in reference to its appearance, as it often has a gray cloud, or lock of gray mist upon his head, or in tribute to a legendary Native American chief, Gray Lock. Gray Lock (c.1670-1750) was a Western Abenaki Missisquoi chief of Woronoco/Pocomtuc ancestry, born near Westfield (MA). Continued English settlement onto Abenaki lands erupted into a new conflict in 1722. While the French, New York colonists, and Iroquois looked on, Abenakis from coastal Maine to Lake Champlain focused raids on the Massachusetts Colony in the conflict known variously as Dummer's War, Three Years War, Lovewell's War, The War with the Eastern Indian or Father Rasle's War. Gray Lock distinguished himself by conducting guerrilla raids into Vermont and western Massachusetts. He consistently eluded his pursuers, and acquired the name Wawanolet (also Wawanolewat, Wawanotewat), meaning "he who fools the others, or puts someone off the track." Eastern Abenaki groups made peace with Massachusetts in 1725 and 1726, and Abenakis from Canada agreed to peace terms in 1727, but Gray Lock refused to. Although it is not clear whether he was actually ever personally associated with the mountain, perhaps in tribute to his notoriety the mountain came to bear his name.

Timothy Dwight IV, President of Yale University, along with Williams College President Ebenezer Fitch, climbed Greylock in 1799, probably over a rough route cut by a local pioneer farmer Jeremiah Wilbur (in that time more land had been cleared on the slopes for farming than today). His account in Travels in New England and New York describes the experience, although he noted the summit vegetation was so thick he and Fitch had to climb a balsam fir tree to get a better view:

“

(Saddle Back) is the highest land in the state...Its southeastern front is extensively visible throughout Berkshire, and from high elevations in the states of New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Connecticut at very great distances...During a great part of the year, it is either embosomed or capped by clouds, and indicates to the surrounding inhabitants the changes of weather with not a little exactness.

”

Williams College, founded in 1793 in nearby Williamstown, has always been closely associated with Greylock and the study of its natural history. On May 12, 1830, a group of students directed by college President Edward Dorr Griffin improved and further cut a trail from the end of the Hopper Road to the summit. Today this route is the Hopper Trail, traditionally climbed by students once a year on Mountain Day.

In May of 1831 the first wooden meteorological observatory, "Griffin's Tower", was built on the summit by students. Nine years later, it was replaced by a more substantial 60-foot (20 m) tall wooden observatory tower, from which Donati's Comet was photographed in 1858. In 1863 the first organized hiking and nature study club in the United States, the Alpine Club, was founded by Professor Albert Hopkins. The club frequently camped on the mountain.

By the mid-nineteenth century improved transportation into the region attracted many visitors to Greylock. Among them were writers and artists inspired by the mountain scene: Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Herman Melville, and Henry David Thoreau.

Melville is said to have taken part of his inspiration for Moby Dick from the view of the mountain from his house Arrowhead in Pittsfield, since its snow-covered profile reminded him of a great white Sperm Whale's back breaking the ocean's surface. Thoreau summited and spent a night in July of 1844. His account of this event in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers described his approach up what is today the Bellows Pipe Trail. Scholars contend that this Greylock experience transformed him, affirming his ability to do these excursions on his own, following his brother John's death; and served as a prelude to his experiment of rugged individualism at Walden Pond the following year in 1845.

By the late nineteenth century clear-cutting logging practices had stripped much of the mountain for local industries that produced wood products, paper and charcoal. Along with this came devastating forest fires and landslides. A group of local businessmen concerned about the mountain incorporated the Greylock Park Association (GPA) in 1885, one of the earliest land conservation groups in the state. They purchased 400 acres (1.6 km²) on the summit. The GPA also undertook long-needed repairs to the Notch Road so that carriages could access the top. Aside from shares to fund its operation, the GPA charged a 25-cent toll for the carriage road and a 10-cent fee to ascend the iron observation tower (built 1889).

By the winter of 1897, with the GPA venture in debt, conservation interests in the state sought to protect the mountain through other means. Legislation was filed to transfer the GPA land holdings on the mountain to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On June 20, 1898 Greylock State Reservation was created, with the stipulation that the state add to the original acreage (to ultimately total 10,000 acres (40.5 km²)). With this land acquisition the Massachusetts state park system was created. A three-person, governor-appointed Greylock (Reservation) Commission, a body of Berkshire County government, was entrusted with the care and maintenance of the reservation. The title Reservation refers to county management of state land, since there was only one state forester and a handful of state fire wardens in service at the time; similarly other early State Reservation properties in Massachusetts were previously managed and operated by county commissions for the state.

In 1906 the surveying and construction of another approach from the south began. Two years later it was opened to the public, and today the Rockwell Road is probably the most popular route up the mountain. Afterwards the Commission turned its attention to the foot trails, and by 1913 it was able to boast that 17 trails existed on the mountain.

By 1929 the Appalachian Trail route up Mount Greylock was first cut, and most of the Massachusetts section route was complete by 1931. But due to disputes between the local Berkshire Hills Conference trail group and the outsider Appalachian Trail Conference/Appalachian Mountain Club Berkshire Chapter, the trail was in jeopardy of growing back in until the local Mount Greylock Ski Club assumed maintenance in 1937.

The greatest period of recreational development on Mount Greylock occurred in the 1930s. The Massachusetts War Memorial Tower on the summit was constructed (1931-32). The Civilian Conservation Corps (107th Company, Camp SP-7) made extensive improvements on roads, trails, vistas, firebreaks, forest health programs and recreation area development. The CCC built Adirondack lean-to shelters, the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter (1940) and completed work on Bascom Lodge (1936-38). The CCC also cut the Thunderbolt Ski Trail (1934), site of the United States Eastern Amateur Ski Association (USEASA, today the United States Ski Association) Championship Races in 1938 and 1940.

In 1966 following years of legal disputes over the Greylock Commission's perceived commercial use of public land, led by the conservation group the Mount Greylock Protective Association, responsibilities for management and operation the mountain reverted from the county to the state park system.

[edit] Features

Today, the 12,500 acre (50.6 km²) Mount Greylock State Reservation is managed and operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of State Parks and Recreation. The ridgeline of Greylock, between Mount Fitch on the north and Saddle Ball on the south is the only place in Massachusetts where a boreal or sub-alpine forest flourishes. The staffed Visitors Center in Lanesborough is open year-round (1.5 miles off Route 7) and provides orientation, trail maps, informational brochures, exhibits and accessible rest rooms. Five lean-to shelters are available for backpacking. About 70 miles (110 km) of trails approach the mountain from various locations, including the Appalachian Trail.

Please note: The road system is closed to auto traffic for the 2007 and 2008 seasons and currently under repair for safety and access improvements. This affects public access to certain facilities; as a result the summit is not accessible by automobile, Bascom Lodge and the Veterans War Memorial Tower are closed, the Campground and Stony Ledge are accessible by hiking only. Operation and access to these facilities are scheduled to resume in spring 2009 upon completion of the Historic Parkway road repairs. The Visitors Center and trails remain open.

The War Memorial Tower atop Mount Greylock

Prominent features on the summit are the Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower, Bascom Lodge, the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter and a television/radio tower. Based on the cultural significance of the summit and excellent examples CCC period park structures, the area was designated a National Historic District in 1998.

The Veterans War Memorial Tower was approved by the state legislature in October 1930, supported by Senator Theodore Plunkett of Adams and Governor Frank G. Allen. The memorial was designed by Boston-based architects Maginnis & Walsh, and built by contractors John G. Roy & Son of Springfield in 1931-32 at a cost of $200,000. It takes the form of a perpetually lighted beacon to honor the state's dead from World War I (and subsequent conflicts).

The architectural design of the tower, a 93-foot (28 m) tall shaft with eight frieze-framed observation openings, was intended to have no suggestion of Utilitarianism but instead to display classic austerity (Starved Classicism). It includes some minor Art Deco details such as the decorative eagle on the base. Inside it is a domed chamber for a reverential shine that was intended to store tablets and war relicts from wartime units in the state's history.

Although local legislators and residents advocated for local stone to be used, it was ultimately quarried from Quincy (MA) Granite. In part, it bears the inscription "they were faithful even unto death." One of the inscriptions inside the monument is, "Of those immortal dead who live again in the minds made better by their presence", which is a line from a poem by George Eliot. The translucent globe of light on top, originally illuminated by twelve 1,500 watt lights (now six), is said to be visible at night for 70 miles (110 km). The formal dedication ceremony in 1933 by Governor Joseph B. Ely was attended by about 1,500 and broadcast nationally over NBC radio.

Bascom Lodge and Saddle Ball Mtn. looking southwest from the War Memorial Tower.

Bascom Lodge was built between 1933-1938 using native materials of Greylock schist and red spruce. Designed by Pittsfield architect, Joseph McArthur Vance, it displays the rustic architectural design of period park structures. The Greylock Commission had desired to rebuild a more substantial shelter for visitors and hikers to the summit since the previous summit house (c.1902) burned down in 1929. The initial west wing was constructed in 1933 by Jules Emil Deloye, Jr. The main-central and east wings were completed later 1936-38 by the CCC. It is open seasonally from mid-May though mid-October, operated as a concession by arrangement with the state. It sells hot food and rents overnight lodging.

Television/Radio Tower: Three stations transmit from a broadcast tower below the summit on the west side: