Taconic Crest Project
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 mailto:ruraland@rnetworx.com
This computer-generated map, created in
the R-TLC's Geographic Information System (G.I.S.), shows protected parcels
along with the Taconic Crest Trail and access trails. The only highway crossing
the Taconics between Stephentown and North Petersburgh is the Taconic Trail
(State Route 2), constructed in 1920, at the popular access point of Petersburgh
Pass. Many hikers head north from the Pass to the “White Rocks” and “Snow Hole,”
or south to Berlin Pass and Berlin Mountain.
The remains of impressive late 19th Century charcoal kilns and a series
of scenic cascades are two notable features in Mattison Hollow. This 1500+ acre
parcel was recently acquired by New York State, and includes one the easiest
hiking and most scenic access trails to the Taconic Crest. The Hollow is rich in
both birds and wildflowers.
The “Snow Hole” and “White Rocks” are two of the
outstanding scenic features of the stretch of the Taconic Crest Trail north of
Petersburgh Pass. The “Snow Hole” is a deep crevice which sometimes holds snow
into the summer. The two areas known as the “White Rocks” are so named because
of the exposed white quartz boulders.
The Taconics were a popular tourist attraction in
the 19th Century, as shown in the old photograph by James E. West of Grafton.
The modern view, looks at Mount Greylock to the east from the open summit Berlin
Mountain.
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.
Fringed gentian (Gentianopsis crinita)grows in a scenic high
meadow (a rich sloping fen) in Prosser Hollow in Petersburgh. Trout-lily
(Erythronium americanum) is found in Mattison Hollow in Berlin along with
many other wildflowers. Dutchman’s breeches ( Dicentra cucullaria) blooms
in rich woods near the head of Robinson Hollow in Stephentown. The modern
panoramic view below looks at the Taconics from Williamstown to the east.
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