Sugarloaf Mountain or Mount Sugarloaf, is a butte-like mountain located in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States, with two summits, North Sugarloaf Mountain and its more popular knee, South Sugarloaf Mountain . Its cliffs, made of arkose sandstone, are a very prominent landscape feature visible for miles. Despite low elevations relative to the

Berkshire Mountains 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 ...

to the west, dramatic cliff faces and a rise of to from the nearby

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...

make the mountain a popular tourist and hiking destination. Sugarloaf Mountain is the southern terminus of the Pocumtuck Range.

Origin of the name

The name '' sugarloaf'' refers to the loaf-like shape that

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

was once molded into for shipment. The names ''Sugarloaf Mountain'' and ''Mount Sugarloaf'' are both used to describe this mountain. USGS sources and published hiking maps refer to (North and South) ''Sugarloaf Mountain''. However, the Massachusetts state reservation encompassing them is called the

Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation is a state-owned, public recreation area managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation located in South Deerfield, just west of the Connecticut River. The state park includes the summits ...

. The name ''Mount Sugarloaf'' is sometimes used to describe only the south summit, and the north summit is sometimes described as the Pocumtuck Ridge.Connecticut River Home Page
. Cited Dec. 17, 2007 Both names are used locally.''AMC Massachusetts and Rhode Island Trail Guide''. 6th ed. Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, Massachusetts, 1989. The original Native American name for the mountain is Wequamps (or Wequomps). The root ''wehqu-'' in this name or ''weckw-'' in ''Weckwannuck'' "Sugarloaf Brook" means "at the point of or extremity of" and occurs in placenames indicating a stopping point. According to Native American myth, Sugarloaf Mountain is the carcass of a human-eating giant beaver who lived in a lake now occupied by the Connecticut River. The people complained to the god Hobomok that the beaver was greedy, and consuming all their resources. In response Hobomok decided to kill the beaver with a club he fashioned from a large tree. After the struggle, the beaver died, sank to the bottom of the lake, turned to stone, and became what is now Sugarloaf Mountain. There may be some truth to this tale; 15,000 years ago the Connecticut River from northern Vermont to southern Connecticut was post- glacial Lake Hitchcock. A now extinct species of giant beaver as big as black bears once inhabited North America at about the same time (see Pocumtuck Range for details).

Geology

Sugarloaf Mountain, geologically contiguous with the Pocumtuck Ridge to the north, is composed of Triassic arkose sandstone and

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

. The Sugarloaf arkose was formed in a rift valley and sits in a half graben regionally called the Deerfield rift basin. The rift basin formed in Triassic- Jurassic time and is part of an area of crustal extension that extended from

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

into Vermont and New Hampshire. The thick Sugarloaf arkose is the basal unit of the Deerfield rift basin and was formed by

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

and alluvial processes. It is overlain by of lacustrine deposits called the Fall River beds. The Fall River beds are capped by of tholeiitic basalt flows which are most visible as part of the geology of the Pocumtuck Ridge to the north. The basalts are overlain by a black

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

to conglomerate called the Turners Falls Sandstone and Mt. Toby Conglomerate.

Mount Toby Mount Toby, , is the highest summit of a sprawling collection of mostly wooded hills and knolls that rise from a distinct plateau-like upland in the towns of Sunderland and Leverett, Massachusetts, just east of the Connecticut River. This mou ...

, the type locality for the Mt. Toby Conglomerate, can be seen directly across the Connecticut River from Sugarloaf Mountain. About 200 million years ago, as the continent of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

began rifting apart from Africa and Eurasia, a series of erosion and deposition episodes interspersed with basalt lava flows created this layer cake. Faulting and earthquakes tilted the layers; subsequent erosion and glacial activity exposed the tilted "layers" of sandstone, basalt, and erosion-resistant conglomerate visible today. Although not composed of basalt trap rock, Sugarloaf Mountain is a closely associated with the Metacomet Ridge by virtue of its origin via the same rifting and uplift that created those mountains. The Sugarloaf Formation (or Sugarloaf Arkose), of which Mt. Sugarloaf is partially composed, was deposited mainly by rivers and alluvial fans, with some localized floodplain ponds or

swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

. The formation is known in other locations to preserve Triassic fossils such coprolites, plant remains such as '' Clathropteris'' and '' Equisitites'' , and fishes such as ''

Semionotus ''Semionotus'' (from el, σημιον , 'mark' and el, νῶτος , 'back') is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish found throughout Northern Pangaea ( North America and Europe) during the late Triassic, becoming extinct in the Early Jurassic ...

, Redfieldius,'' and ''

Ptycholepis ''Ptycholepis'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish having the head and opercular bones ornamented with ridges of ganoin, minute teeth, and thick scales (which are much longer than deep and are grooved longitudinally on the outer ...

''. Additionally, the Sugarloaf Formation preserves rare examples of lithified armored mud balls.

Recreation

A seasonal auto road climbs the summit of South Sugarloaf (open late spring through the fall foliage season), and a small seasonal observation tower is located on the summit. Several steep hiking trails, including the

Pocumtuck Ridge Trail The Pocumtuck Ridge Trail is a footpath that traverses the Pocumtuck Range of Deerfield and Greenfield, Massachusetts. The trail is known for its dramatic views of the Deerfield River and Connecticut River valleys from extensive cliff faces. ...

, make the mountain a favorite local hiking destination. Most of the mountain has been conserved as part of the

. The reservation is easily accessible via Route 116 and is only a 15-minute drive from the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. There is parking at the base of the mountain and at the top of the paved road that leads from the parking area to the summit of South Sugarloaf. It is free to hike the trails or climb the road by foot or by bike, but there is a nominal fee for vehicles. North Sugarloaf Mountain is only accessible by foot; a small cave is located just beneath the summit ledges.

Film and television

In Fall 2008, the Mel Gibson film '' Edge of Darkness'' was filmed at the summit of South Sugarloaf. The observation tower was temporarily renovated for the film.

Gallery

Image:Observation Deck, Mt Sugarloaf, South Deerfield MA.JPG, Observation Deck on Mt Sugarloaf in South Deerfield MA. Image:Picnic_Grove,_Mt_Sugarloaf,_South_Deerfield_MA.jpg, Picnic Grove on Mt Sugarloaf, South Deerfield MA Image:East South East View, Mt Sugarloaf, South Deerfield MA.jpg, View of the Connecticut River and the Pioneer Valley looking East South East from Mt Sugarloaf in South Deerfield MA. Image:Mt. Sugarloaf, South Deerfield, MA.jpg, South Sugarloaf. 1910 postcard.

References

External links

Map of Mount Toby

The view from atop Mount Sugarloaf in Deerfield is shown Aug. 11, 2017
by Chris Goudreau, '' Valley Advocate'', Feb. 13, 2018 {{Mountains of Massachusetts Deerfield, Massachusetts Locations in Native American mythology Mountains of Franklin County, Massachusetts Mountains of Massachusetts Pocumtuck Range