Mount Watatic

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Mount Watatic
Summit of Mount Watatic.
Elevation	558 m / 1,832 ft
Location	Ashburnham and Ashby, Massachusetts, USA
Range	The Wapack Range
Coordinates	42°41′48″N, 71°53′33″W
Type	monadnock; metamorphic rock
Age of rock	400 million years

Mount Watatic is a 1,832 foot (558 m) monadnock located on the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border, at the southern end of the Wapack Range of mountains. It lies within Ashburnham, Massachusetts, Ashby, Massachusetts, and New Ipswich, New Hampshire; the 22 miles (35 km) Wapack Trail and the 92 miles (148 km) Midstate Trail both cross the mountain.

The east and south side of the mountain drains into the Souhegan River watershed, to the Merrimack River thence the Atlantic Ocean; the west and north sides drain into the Millers River watershed, to the Connecticut River, thence into Long Island Sound.

Mount Watatic was the site of a ski area that operated for several decades until closing in 1984. An attempt to reopen the ski area in 1988 failed. The bald summit of the mountain featured a fire tower, open to the public, until its removal in 1997.

[edit] Conservation

An engraved stone at the summit of Mount Watatic.

In 2000, the summit of the mountain was sold to Industrial Communications and Electronics for the development of a 150 feet (46 m) cellular telephone tower and a road to the summit. In 2002, prior to development of the communications tower, the mountain was purchased for $2,500,000 by the Ashby Land Trust, the Ashburnham Conservation Trust and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Unfortunately by this point a road had already been blasted into the ski area (back) side of the mountain, making several of the still maintained ski trails unusable. The purchase resulted in the permanent protection of approximately 281 acres (1.14 km²) of the mountain, including the summit, as conservation land.

[edit] References

Southern New Hampshire Trail Guide (1999). Boston: The Appalachian Mountain Club.
Flanders, John ( 1991) Wapack Trail Guide. West Peterborough, New Hampshire: Friends of the Wapack.
Mount Watatic State Reservation – The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
Lost Massachusetts Ski Areas