Agencies and organizations in three states cooperate in land preservation activity

A project that began with a "For Sale" sign at an abandoned ski area along Petersburgh Pass has, in ten years, turned into a multi-state effort to preserve the Taconic Ridge between New York, and Massachusetts and Vermont. At this time, some 10,000 acres and a major section of the long-distance Taconic Crest (foot) Trail has been preserved through conservation easements or purchase by state agencies.

Both New York and Massachusetts in 1993 recognized the Taconics, a nearly unbroken wilderness, as a significant biological, scenic and timber resource. The environmental agencies of each state, working with local conservation non-profits, have worked in partnership to identify critical parcels for protection and funding sources for the initiative. Groups such as the Taconic Hiking Club, the Trust for Public Land, the National Park Service, Williams College, Rensselaer-Taconic Land Conservancy and the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation joined by the state agencies, have formed a citizens council to address issues of management and use (such as trail marking, maintenance and mapping) as more of the land comes under ownership of fewer entities.

This project is a prime example of how public and private partnerships can work to promote landscape scale protection across political boundaries. Preservation of the resources provided by the Taconics continues to be a primary goal of all agencies involved. This cooperative effort is being facilitated by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, a land trust that has been protecting the rural New England character of Williamstown since 1986. For more information, contact the WRLF at PO Box 221, Williamstown, MA 01267 (phone/fax: (413) 458-2494) (e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The woodlands which cover the Taconics conceal a rich and colorful history of two centuries. The "Albany Road," a heretofore unknown Colonial highway dating to 1753 that connected Albany with Deerfield, Massachusetts, was opened over Berlin Pass in 1773. The British document (left) refers to it as passing "Through a Country Not Well Settled." This portion of the Colonial road later became part of New York's Eastern Turnpike of 1802 and the 4th Massachusetts Turnpike of 1804-1805. Lumbering, charcoal burning and maple sugar production were three important industries in the Taconics. Remains of charcoal kilns, family graveyards and old farm sites are visible today. One of the most interesting facets of the history of the mountain range, is the tragic story of the Williamstown basket makers:

Frozen to Death in April!

Caution about being prepared for colder weather when hiking the Taconic crest should not go unheeded. The weather in these mountains has not changed perceptively over the years, and the spring of 1857 was a particularly cold one, with snow storms persisting into April. The unseasonably wintry weather that April 17th contributed to one of the most tragic events that the Taconics ever have witnessed.

The "White Oaks" neighborhood of Williamstown was the home of a few poor Black or mixed-race (Black, Yankee and Native American) families in the nineteenth century. One of these families, the Ballous, looked on disparagingly by their staid Yankee neighbors because of the racial intermarriages, performed various manual tasks and hand-crafted wooden baskets to support themselves. Amasa Ballou and his wife, Hannah, both in their forties, along with a Black woman Lucinda (known as "Taut" or "Tot") Curtis, aged about thirty-five and her ten year old son, Henry, had been in Petersburgh selling their handicrafts. When all baskets had been sold they determined to cross the mountain and return to Williamstown on the evening of Friday, April 17th. They purchased some whiskey and provisions and climbed the old mountain road to the neighborhood of the "Snow Hole."

The snow was a foot and a half deep, and had drifted as deep as six to eight feet in places, and the weary travelers stopped to rest in the vicinity of the "White Rocks," a "very drear and cold place, where there is no tree or bush to break the cutting winds, on the very apex of the hill." The party consumed not only their victuals but also liberally drank the liquor, which according to one of the contemporary newspaper accounts, the Petersburgh "rum seller" had led them to believe would keep them warm on their journey. Unconscious of the severity of the cold and their physical condition, the unfortunate travelers dozed off in their final sleep.

The next morning a passer-by found all four persons frozen stiff and dead. The only life to be found was their faithful dog, lying between the dead bodies, fighting desperately to protect his former companions. The bodies were taken to Petersburgh where a coroner was called, who pronounced the four dead "by drinking ardent spirits, getting intoxicated, and freezing." Authorities in Williamstown were notified; they identified the bodies but would take no further part in the matter. The Petersburgh folk were more sympathetic, giving the unfortunate deceased a proper burial from the Baptist Church and most probably in the "Moses" Cemetery. The faithful dog was finally convinced to eat and subsequently adopted by B. B. Hewitt, Petersburgh's Overseer of the Poor.

The story of the tragedy was carried in a number of newspapers from Troy to Springfield, and the Editor of the North Adams Weekly Transcript was particularly outraged at the conduct of the Petersburgh "rum seller" in taking advantage of these poor persons in such a mercenary and heinous manner. The newspaper accounts, written in the style of the day which now seems quaint and antiquated, nonetheless convey not only sympathy but enough details to enable us to look back and visualize that bitter April weekend. Of the many, many poor and disadvantaged families who we know resided in rural regions of our county in the past, most remain nameless because no one cared enough at the time to write about or otherwise document their lives. It is ironic that the names of the poor basket makers live on in history only because of the sensation and enormity of their tragic fate.