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Mount
Washington Massachusetts, 1890
Mount Washington, a mountainous and
beautiful town of about 25 square miles, forms the southwestern
angle of Berkshire County and of the State of Massachusetts. Situated
on the Taconic range of mountains, its noble elevations stand
as sentinels between the Hudson and the Housatonic, both within
view. On the north and northeast this town is bounded by Egremont;
on the east by Sheffield; on the south by Salisbury in Connecticut;
and west by Aneram and Copake, in New York. The Copake station
on the New York and Harlem Railroad, four miles distant, is the
nearest railroad connection for the town.
There
are 9,127 acres of forest (more than half the area), consisting
mostly of chestnut and yellow birch The chief elevations are Alander,
Bare, Cedar and Mount Everett, the last being 2,624 feet high.
Mount Everett is sometimes called the Taconic Dome, from its elevation
and position in this range, and from its peculiar form. In altitude
it excels all other mountains in the State, except Greylock, which
occupies a corresponding position in the northwest. Dr. Edward
Hitchcock says of the former mountain, in his "Geology of
Massachusetts:" "Its central part is a somewhat conical,
almost naked eminence, except that numerous yellow pines two or
three feet high, and whortleberry bushes, have fixed themselves
wherever the crevices of the rock afford sufficient soil. Thence
the view from the summit is entirely unobstructed. . . . This
certainly is the grandest prospect in Massachusetts, though others
are more beautiful."
On
the southwest side of Cedar Mountain are the beautiful Bishapish
Falls, where a clear streamlet comes dashing down over the rocks
a distance of 200 feet, filling the air with its feathery spray
and mellow music. Other streams are Wright Brook, Lee Pond Brook
and Guilder's Brook, the outlet of Guilder's Pond, a beautiful
sheet of water in the northeast, 20 acres in extent. Plaintain
Pond is another charming sheet covering 75 acres, lying between
Race Mountain and a long curving hill in the southeast.
This
town has 39 farms, whose product in 1885 was valued at $21,753.
There are 41 dwelling-houses, and a population of 160, of whom
36 are legal voters. There are two public school buildings, valued
at nearly $2,000; a Congregationalist church, and a Sunday school
having a library of upwards of 350 volumes.
Originally
Taucounuck Mountain Plantation, this place was incorporated as
the town of Mount Washington, June 21, 1779. The town is noted
for its whortleberries; and one of the summer diversions of the
people, old and young, is the gathering of this delicious berry.
pp.
477-478 in Nason and Varney's Massachusetts Gazetteer, 1890
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