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36-455: Brodie Mountain, 2,621 feet (799 m), is a prominent 5.5-mile (8.9 km) long ridgeline in the Taconic Mountains of western Massachusetts , known for the former Brodie Mountain ski area , which closed in 2002. The ridge has eight well defined summits, three of which have names: Sheep's Heaven Mountain , 2,530 feet (770 m), the ridge's southern prominatory; Beoadic Mountain ,

72-479: A developer; much of it is slated for condominium development. The Brodie Mountain ridge is located in the towns of Hancock , Lanesborough , New Ashford , and Williamstown, Massachusetts . It is bordered to the northeast by Mount Greylock , to the south by Potter Mountain ; and to the west by Misery Mountain . The southwest side drains into Kinderhook Creek , thence the Hudson River and Long Island Sound ;

108-510: A variety of rare and endangered species; and Mount Philo 968 feet (295 m), home of Mount Philo State Park with its mountaintop campground. Natural resource extraction has been an important industry in the Taconic Mountains; extraction industries have included marble , limestone , slate , and iron mining as well as logging and charcoaling . Along with various state properties, some mentioned elsewhere in this article,

144-636: Is larger than the current Taconic Mountains, extending westward toward the Hudson River . It formed during the Ordovician period in the collision of the North American Plate into a volcanic island arc . Geologist E-An Zen proved this allochthon's existence in 1966 via a study of the region's faulting, although it had been proposed around 1906 by Rudolf Ruedemann and separately by Arthur Keith , each using concepts associated with French geologist Marcel Alexandre Bertrand . Their proposals regarding

180-412: Is likely from a Delaware word meaning "in the trees". The spelling "Taghkanic", among several variant transliterations, is current for about a half-dozen locales, mostly within the immediate region. As written English, the term appears in a 1685 petition for the right to purchase land in western Massachusetts. Timothy Dwight IV used the name "Taughkannuc Mountain" in an account of his 1781 ascent of

216-661: The Berkshire Natural Resources Council and the Nature Conservancy have been active in the region. The U.S. Forest Service has designated several areas within the Taconics under its Forest Legacy Program , which affords subsidies for the acquisition of conservation easement, although practical effects have been limited. Minor fragments of the Green Mountain National Forest are located in

252-728: The Taconic Skyline Trail )s. North of the Massachusetts border, the profile of the Taconic Range is cut by the Hoosic River in the vicinity of Bennington, Vermont . Mount Anthony 2,320 feet (710 m), notable for its caves and as the location of the former Southern Vermont College , stands as a satellite peak above the surrounding eroded terrain. North of Bennington, the range gradually rises to its highest prominence with peaks such as Mount Equinox 3,850 feet (1,170 m),

288-542: The "Families and Natural Orders of Plants", published in the American Journal of Science , attracted the attention of some of the leading European botanists, and led to a correspondence with them. In the class of " carices " he was a recognized authority, and his writings on that subject make an elaborate monograph, upon which he labored for more than forty years. His "History of the Herbaceous Plants of Massachusetts"

324-443: The 19th century. This area includes a locally significant and expansive area of undisturbed forest, although only a fraction is assured protection from development. Mount Washington State Forest and Taconic State Park are among the larger public properties within the immediate region. The highest summit here is Mount Everett 2,624 feet (800 m), home of a pitch pine and scrub oak biome . Others include Mount Frissell ,

360-592: The 20th century, it became attached to the theory of an Ordovician mountain-building event involving much of what is now eastern North America named the " Taconic Orogeny ". The range is part of the Taconic Allochthon , a local rock structure which traveled to its current position from about 25 miles to the east through low-angle thrusting. Rocks of this allochthon are older than the strata lying beneath, and consist of slate , phyllite , and schist , "plus some minor lenses of limestone ." The Taconic allochthon

396-468: The East Mountain summit, but has been discontinued on Brodie Mountain, although the former route, now an unsanctioned ATV trail, still exists. An older route once traversed the entire ridge from south to north, but the northern sections fell into disuse in the 1970s and are totally obscured. The former ski area, located on the east-center portion of the ridge, was purchased for 2.6 million dollars in 2004 by

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432-830: The Northern Taconics. Multi-partner collaboratives that have targeted the Taconic Mountains with limited results and include the New England Wildlands and Woodlands Collaborative, a regional conservation agenda for the New England states produced by representatives of dozens of non-profits and academic institutions and, more specifically, the Taconic Crest Project, which involves the states of New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont in collaboration with local land trusts and The Nature Conservancy. Chester Dewey Chester Dewey (October 25, 1784 – December 15, 1867)

468-529: The Taconic Mountains are the foothills of the Lake Bomoseen region west of Birdseye and Grandpa's Knob, notable for their extensive slate quarrying operations. North of Grandpa's Knob, the Taconic Range soon diminishes into scattered hills which extend north into the Burlington, Vermont region. Isolated summits in this area include Snake Mountain 1,281 feet (390 m), a Nature Conservancy preserve featuring

504-724: The Taconics' central segment includes New York's Beebe Hill and Harvey Mt. State Forest, Berlin State Forest, Pittsfield State Forest and the contiguous Taconic Ridge State Forest and Taconic Trail State Park in New York and Massachusetts, respectively, as well as the Mount Greylock State Reservation . Within this segment are also three long-distance trails (the Appalachian Trail , the Taconic Crest Trail , and

540-610: The Taconics, however, were viewed as unproven and controversial until Zen's work. An earlier and largely separate dispute over the age of the Taconic Mountains based on the region's sparse fossil record began in the 1830s and centered on the theory of Ebenezer Emmons of Williams College that the range was older than its surroundings with a distinct geology he named "the Taconic System." In opposing Emmons' theory, James Hall of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute initially gained prominent support from famed international scientists of

576-589: The city of Rutland; these include Herrick Mountain 2,726 feet (831 m); Grandpa's Knob 1,976 feet (602 m), the former site of the Smith–Putnam wind turbine , the first large-scale electricity-producing wind turbine ; and the butte -like Bird Mountain (also called Birdseye Mountain) 2,216 feet (675 m), home of the Bird Mountain Wildlife Management Area and notable as an important raptor migration path and nesting site. Also part of

612-502: The crest shifts west once again to hills contained within Pittsfield State Forest and the contiguous Balance Rock Park and Bates Memorial State Park, where heights include Holy Mount 1,968 feet (600 m), (once the location of religious rituals practiced by a former Shaker community) and Berry Hill 2,200 feet (670 m), notable for its extensive stands of wild azalea . North of Jiminy Peak 2,392 feet (729 m),

648-500: The day, including Louis Agassiz and Charles Lyell . Emmons died in 1863, yet as late as the 1880s two leading geologists of the era James Dwight Dana (Yale University) and Jules Marcou wrote of their continued and sometimes bitter disagreements over Emmons' theory. This early phase of ideas about the Taconic Mountains is compared with the Great Devonian Controversy that preoccupied British geologists for part of

684-543: The east, composed of schist and phyllite , is dominated by the 7-mile (11 km) escarpment of Tinmouth Mountain 2,835 feet (864 m), overlooking the Valley of Vermont to the east in the town of Tinmouth . A field of less descript ridges and peaks lies between these two summits. Near the end of the range, in the vicinity of Rutland, Vermont , the Taconic Mountains show several prominent peaks with dramatic, irregular cliff faces clearly visible from U.S. Route 4 west of

720-561: The few outstanding authorities on a perplexing and not at all showy group, he seems at the same time to have been looked at askance by the more cautious of them. Dewey's important collections contained 97 types of species and varieties proposed by him. In 1863, Dewey was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society . He died in Rochester, New York , on December 15, 1867. Dewey bequeathed his herbarium , one of

756-526: The high point of the Taconic Mountains, and Dorset Mountain 3,770 feet (1,150 m), a New England 100 Highest list summit. Other notable summits include Grass Mountain 3,109 feet (948 m), a New England Fifty Finest list mountain; and Mount Aeolus 3,230 feet (980 m), the location of several defunct marble quarries and the site of Aeolus Cave an important bat hibernaculum . Designated hiking trails are located on Mount Equinox, Dorset Mountain, and Mount Aeolus, and several other peaks within

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792-634: The largest operating wind farm in Massachusetts, began operation on the southern portion of the Brodie Mountain ridge in 2011. The facility consists of ten turbines capable of producing a total of fifteen megawatts of electricity, and is owned by the Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation , a non-profit, public power corporation. Taconic Mountains Forests are predominately maple-beech-birch with some spruce-fir at higher elevations, "and oak and hickory common to

828-523: The northeast of Harvey Mountain is West Stockbridge Mountain and the Lenox Mountain massif; taken together, modern conservationists have named these two separate areas Yokun Ridge , an 9-mile (14 km) zone extending from the Massachusetts Turnpike to the southerly neighborhoods of Pittsfield at elevations ranging between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 610 m). At Pittsfield,

864-781: The northwest side into the West Branch of the Green River , the Green River, the Hoosic River , thence the Hudson River; the northeast side into East Brook, thence Green River; and the southeast side into Town Brook, the West Branch of the Housatonic River , thence the Housatonic River and Long Island Sound. The mountain is forested in northern hardwood species ; its geology is Ordovician phyllite . The Berkshire Wind Power Project ,

900-407: The pulpit. He also assisted his brother, Loring D. Dewey in his efforts to create a school of U.S. Blacks. For the remainder of his life he accepted frequent invitations to preach, in scores of churches in many places and did nearly as much work of this kind as if preaching were his only occupation. Dewey was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Williams College from 1810 to 1827. He

936-620: The range; the 21.3-mile (34.3 km) South Taconic Trail traverses the western escarpment, passing near Bash Bish Falls , reputedly Massachusetts' highest waterfall. From Catamount Ski Area north to the Hoosic River Valley, a straight-line distance of about 50 miles, the crest initially shifts slightly west. Notable summits in the southern part of this segment are Bald Mountain, 1,768 feet (539 m), and Harvey Mountain, 2,057 feet (627 m), as well as Beebe Hill , 1,726 feet (526 m), with its summit fire tower. Several miles to

972-484: The region. Immediately north of Danby, Vermont , the Taconic Range broadens and becomes lower. It exhibits several parallel ridgelines, dominated to the west by mountains composed of slate and similar rock, most notably the ridgeline of Saint Catherine Mountain 1,200 feet (370 m), with its conspicuous 5-mile (8.0 km) long cliff face visible from Wells and Poultney . The area around Lake Saint Catherine contains extensive slate quarries. The ridgeline to

1008-404: The ridge high point, just north of Sheep's Heaven; and East Mountain , 2,613 feet (796 m) located at the top of the former ski area at the center of the ridge. A northern summit, 2,170 feet (660 m), is shown as "Brodie Mountain" on maps that predate the Brodie Mountain ski area. The Taconic Skyline Trail formerly ran north over Sheep's Heaven Mountain to the Brodie Mountain ski area at

1044-517: The south and at lower elevations." Parts of the Taconics are in the New England-Acadian forests ecoregion . Although mostly private property, the Taconics contain a half-dozen sizable state forests and parks, as well as many preserves of lesser acreage protected by land trusts. Several hundred miles of trails are within these mountains, including parts of the Appalachian Trail . Taconic

1080-513: The south slope of which contains the highest point in Connecticut at 2,379 feet (725 m); Bear Mountain 2,326 feet (709 m), the highest mountain peak in Connecticut; Alander Mountain 2,239 feet (682 m), Brace Mountain 2,311 feet (704 m),; and Mount Fray 1,893 feet (577 m), home of the Catamount Ski Area . The Appalachian Trail traverses the eastern escarpment of

1116-543: The summit later named Mount Everett . Dwight's account was deemed the "first recorded ascent" of that peak in a 1989 text on regional hiking history. The term first entered geological literature in 1819 with Chester Dewey 's "Sketch of the Mineralogy and Geology of the Vicinity of Williams' College". It gained prominence in the field when Dewey's protégé Emmons proposed the existence of a "Taconic System" in 1839 (see above). In

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1152-457: The valley of Kinderhook Creek cuts through the hills. Here the westernmost ridgeline is dominated by Misery Mountain and Berlin Mountain 2,818 feet (859 m) and extending into Pownal, Vermont . In this vicinity is Mount Greylock 3,491 feet (1,064 m), the highest point in Massachusetts and the long ridge of 2,621 feet (799 m) Brodie Mountain . Significant public property within

1188-468: Was an American botanist, antislavery activist, clergyman and educator. Chester Dewey was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts , on October 25, 1784, to Elizabeth Owen and Stephen Dewey. He studied for the ministry at Williams College , graduated in 1806, and officiated at Tryingham, Massachusetts. Even though he gave up preaching as his primary profession after only a few months, he never really retired from

1224-529: Was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1818. From 1850 until 1860 he was professor of chemistry and natural philosophy in the University of Rochester . Dr. Dewey married Sarah Dewey of Stockbridge, Mass. , in 1810 and had five children. She died in 1823. In 1825 he married Olivia Hart, eldest child of Lemuel Pomeroy, Jr., of Pittsfield, Mass. Dewey's entire life

1260-428: Was given to scientific pursuits, and he held a high position among American naturalists. He made the study of grasses a specialty, and discovered and described several new species. The degree of M.D. was conferred upon him by Yale in 1825, D.D. by Union in 1838 and LL.D. by Williams in 1850. He was a careful and accurate observer of the weather, and his notes were published in regular monthly reports. His papers on some of

1296-525: Was published by that state. His latest writings were review articles on "The True Place of Man in Zoology" and "An Examination of Some Reasonings Against the Unity of Mankind." In botany, Dewey is known chiefly as a student of the genus Carex . For 43 years (1824–1867) he contributed to the pages of the American Journal of Science a series of papers entitled "Caricography". Recognized by his contemporaries as one of

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