Mount Greylock
From Freepedia
| Mount Greylock | |
|---|---|
| Image:Mount Greylock.JPG Mount Greylock from Hancock, MA | |
| Elevation: | 1,064 m (3,491 ft) |
| Location: | Massachusetts–Berkshires |
| Range: | Appalachians |
Contents |
Location
Mount Greylock is surrounded by the towns of North Adams on the north, Adams on the east, Williamstown on the northwest, and Cheshire on the south. The Visitors Center for the Mount Greylock State Reservation is located in Lanesborough a mile and a half (2.4 km) from Route 7.
North Adams contains a steep portion of the Appalachian Trail, leading to Saddle Ball Mountain adjacent to Greylock's ridge. The Appalachian Trail also passes through Cheshire. Beginning on unpaved rural roads close to Adams, multiple trails lead to Mount Greylock and other mountains in the same ridge.
History
In the early nineteenth century, Mount Greylock was known as Saddleback Mountain because of its appearance (Saddle Ball, the name of the peak to the south, still reflects this). Herman Melville is said to have taken part of his inspiration for Moby Dick from the view of Mount Greylock from his house Arrowhead, looking north from a porch near Pittsfield, since its profile reminded him of a whale lying on the ocean's surface.
Trail development
Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, is known to have climbed Greylock as early as 1799, when two roads existed towards the summit of the mountain, one from the north built and maintained by a local farmer named Jeremiah Wilbur (in that time more land had been cleared on the slopes for farming than today). This is still in use today as the Notch Road.
The other went up the Hopper valley on the mountain's west slope. On May 12, 1830, a crew of students from nearby Williams College cut a trail from the end of the latter to the summit in order to build an observatory; this route still exists as the Hopper Trail. That same day they built the first observation tower on the mountain; in 1841 a more permanent structure was built.
During this period the mountain became a popular picnic spot for many of the Transcendentalist writers who lived in or visited the area. Henry David Thoreau summited in 1844; while most historians claim from his account that he used the northeast approach currently known as the Bellows Pipe Trail, which may have existed at least partially at that time, others claim he simply bushwhacked to the summit with the aid of a compass.
While it seemed that the mountain was on its way to developing an extensive trail system, by the 1850s many of these routes were in some degree of disuse and disrepair. Even the Notch Road was impassable to carriages beyond a certain point.
In 1885 the Greylock Park Association was formed and purchased 400 acres (1.6 km²) of the summit and surrounding land to protect it. It also undertook long-needed repairs to the Notch Road so that carriages could once again reach the summit.
A decade later, a local man named Rollin Cooke used an old stage road as the basis for a vehicular route up the mountain from the west. By the end of the century, they were still a mile (1.6 km) short of the summit, however.
By then, the Park Association had transferred its properties to a more public entity, the Greylock Commission. It finished Cooke's road and in 1906 began surveying and constructing another road approach from the south. Two years later it was opened to the public, and today, as the Rockwell Road, it is 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 and ridge.
Eventually the state of Massachusetts took over responsibilities for land acquisition and management on the mountain from the commission. The war memorial on the summit was dedicated by the governor in 1932 at a ceremony attended by 1,500.
The Appalachian Trail's steep route up from Cheshire to the south had just been cut then using a right-of-way that dated to the mid-19th century. However, due to disputes between local groups and the Appalachian Trail Conference, it was little maintained throughout the remainder of the decade and almost disappeared until the Mount Greylock Ski Club rescued it in the years before the war.
Today, the Mount Greylock State Reservation comprises 12,000 acres (48 km²) of the mountain, its slopes and surrounding ridges.
Features
A paved road over the summit, crossing the mountain roughly north-south, is passable in the warm months by general traffic, and is often passable in winter by four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is free; however there is a $2 fee to park at the summit.
The summit features a World War I memorial, in the form of a lighted tower, and Bascom Lodge.
The memorial, built in 1932, bears the inscription "they were faithful even unto death." It is 93 feet (28 m) tall, with glass ball of light at its top. The light is said to be visible for 70 miles (110 km).
Bascom Lodge, open in summer and operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club through the 1990s, continues under different management, by arrangement with the state. It sells hot food and rents overnight lodging.
There are hiking trails up the mountain from many directions. The summits of Greylock and Mt. Fitch to the north and Saddle Ball to the south are the only places in Massachusetts where a boreal forest of red spruce and balsam fir flourishes.
Three broadcast stations transmit from a tower below the summit on the west side:
- WAMC-FM (90.3 Albany, New York)
- WCDC-TV (19/36 Adams, Massachusetts)
- WNYA-TV (51 Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
- A NOAA Weather Radio station (WWF-48, 162.525 MHz) also broadcasts from this site.
External links
- Mass.gov: Mt. Greylock State Reservation
- Berkshire Web: Mt. Greylock
- America's Roof: Mt. Greylock
- Preserved One-room Schoolhouse on Mt. Greylock
- Summit Log of Mt. Greylock
