Monument Mountain is the name of a popular open space reservation located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on the southeast side of Monument Mountain. The reservation is centered on the subordinate summit of ''Peeskawso Peak.'' It is managed by

The Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...

, a non-profit conservation organization and is notable for its expansive views of the Housatonic River Valley,

The Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

, the Taconic Mountains, and the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

from the knife-edge summit of Peeskawso Peak. Monument Mountain, composed of erosion resistant

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

, is of

geology. The reservation receives more than 20,000 visitors a year. The mountain was logged for charcoal to fuel a furnace in Vandusenville at the corner of Division St and Rt 41 in Great Barrington , not the for-mentioned furnaces of Falls Village etc Remnants of the furnace can be seen if one stands on the Rt41 bridge and looks upstream on the Williams River

History

Monument Mountain was a sacred place to the ancestors of the Mohican people since time immemorial. They left stone prayers in a monument that gives the mountain its name. It has been the subject of art and literature since as early as 1815 when the poet William Cullen Bryant penned "Monument Mountain," an account of the story of a Mohican woman who allegedly leapt from what is now called Peeskawso Peak. In 1850,

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

and

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...

picnicked on the mountain;a thunderstorm forced them to seek cover in a boulder cave where they engaged in a lengthy discussion that inspired some of Melville's ideas for his novel Moby Dick. In the 1930s, red pines were planted on the reservation; by that time much of the mountain had been heavily logged for the

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

industry in support of iron foundries in Falls Village, Connecticut and

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The town is based in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 census. Lenox is the site of Shakespeare & Company and T ...

. The reservation was acquired as the gift of Helen C. Butler in 1899 and John Butler Swann in 1980. Additional parcels were purchased in 1985 and 1986. In 2021, the Trustees renamed the summit and two trails after collaboration with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans. Indian Monument Trail was renamed the Mohican Monument Trail, Squaw Peak Trail was renamed the Peeskawso Peak Trail, and Squaw Peak, a summit of Monument Mountain, was renamed Peeskawso Peak.

Recreation

A trailhead parking lot is located on

Massachusetts Route 7 U.S. Route 7 (US 7) in of Massachusetts is a section of the larger federal route extending from southern Connecticut to the northernmost part of Vermont. Within Massachusetts, the entire route in Massachusetts is within Berkshire Coun ...

north of Great Barrington center. Parking is free for Trustees of Reservations members; $5 per car for the general public. The trail system consists of the ''Hickey Trail'' and ''Mohican Monument Trail'' which form a loop around Peeskawso Peak; and ''Peeskawso Peak Trail'' which ascends the knife edge summit between the other two trails. The trail to the summit includes a little bit of rock scrambling and has been the scene of some accidents and falls. An unnamed waterfall is located along the Hickey Trail. ''Devil's Pulpit,'' part of Peeskawso Peak, is a free-standing pillar of stone visible from the Peeskawso Peak Trail. The reservation is open to

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

, picnicking, and hunting (in season).

External links

The Trustees of ReservationsTrail map

References

The Trustees of Reservations Protected areas of Berkshire County, Massachusetts Open space reserves of Massachusetts Great Barrington, Massachusetts Protected areas established in 1899 1899 establishments in Massachusetts {{BerkshireCountyMA-geo-stub