Yokun Ridge is a -long conservation zone within the
Taconic MountainsThe Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
in
Berkshire County, MassachusettsBerkshire County is a non-governmental county located on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of 2000, the population was 134,953. Its largest city and county seat is Pittsfield...
designated in 1993 by the U.S. Forest Service under its
Forest Legacy ProgramThe Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 Farm Bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses...
which makes funds available for the purchase of conservation easements. More officially known as the Stockbridge-Yokun Ridge Reserve, it is notable for outdoor recreation and scenic beauty, as well as its potential for land conservation and proximity to the tourist destinations of
LenoxLenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
and
StockbridgeStockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,276 at the 2000 census...
.
Yokun Ridge is a -long conservation zone within the
Taconic MountainsThe Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
in
Berkshire County, MassachusettsBerkshire County is a non-governmental county located on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of 2000, the population was 134,953. Its largest city and county seat is Pittsfield...
designated in 1993 by the U.S. Forest Service under its
Forest Legacy ProgramThe Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 Farm Bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses...
which makes funds available for the purchase of conservation easements. More officially known as the Stockbridge-Yokun Ridge Reserve, it is notable for outdoor recreation and scenic beauty, as well as its potential for land conservation and proximity to the tourist destinations of
LenoxLenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
and
StockbridgeStockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,276 at the 2000 census...
. The area includes segments of
West StockbridgeWest Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,416 at the 2000 census.- History :...
,
StockbridgeStockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,276 at the 2000 census...
,
LenoxLenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. It is the site of Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
,
RichmondRichmond is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,604 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, and
Pittsfield, MassachusettsPittsfield is the largest city in and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...
. Only some areas within the zone are protected as
open space reserveOpen space reserve, open space preserve, and open space reservation, are planning and conservation ethics terms used to describe areas of protected or conserved land or water on which development is indefinitely set aside...
, municipal watershed, and wildlife sanctuary.
Geography
The Yokun Ridge zone includes both West Stockbridge Mountain to the south, as well as a contiguous area to the north roughly centered on Lenox Mountain. The long and narrow West Stockbridge Mountain forms the border of Stockbridge and West Stockbridge and has several high points, , at the summit, , , and .
The segment centered on Lenox Mountain contains three reservoirs, a number of small brooks, ponds, ravines and wetlands, as well as various outlying hilltops. Lenox Mountain itself has several distinct summits and is cut by a high notch along Reservoir Road in Lenox. Summits include , , , Baldhead , , 2,139 feet (652 m) at the summit, and Yokun Seat 2,133 feet (650 m).
To the north of Lenox Mountain and still within the conservation zone, lies The Damp , Mahanna Cobble 1,903 feet (580 m), and at the top of the
Bousquet Ski AreaBousquet Ski Area is a ski area located in on a northern summit of Yokun Ridge in Pittsfield, Massachusetts within the Berkshires cultural region. The resort features a vertical drop of , a lift-top elevation of , twenty-four trails, five lifts, one terrain park, and 75% snowmaking...
. The northern boundary of the zone, in Pittsfield, includes Mud Pond and its surrounding wetlands in its northwest corner , and South Mountain, , to the northeast.
History, Nomenclature and Federal Status
"Yokun Seat," the name for part of Lenox Mountain, was accepted in 1894 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and appears on the USGS "Pittsfield West" quadrangle.
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=106:3:4092334980066195::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:617274%2CYokun%20Seat "Yokuntown" was a designation for the village of Lenox in the 18th Century."Yokun" derives from Jehoiakim Yokun, a
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
of the
MahicanThe Mahicans are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley , many then moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to northeastern Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.The tribe's name for itself was...
tribe, which occupied the area circa 1740. Yokun's
MahicanThe Mahicans are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley , many then moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to northeastern Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.The tribe's name for itself was...
tribe "sold" their land to European settlers in the mid-1700s.
European settlers logged the area's forests for lumber and
charcoalCharcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood, sugar, bone char, or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
, the latter used as a source for nearby iron foundries, which helped supply ordnance in the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
. During the late 19th Century's
Gilded AgeIn American history, the Gilded Age refers to substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century...
much of what now lies within the Yokun Ridge conservation zone was held by a handful of large estates, including the Stokes property, whose 1894 "Shadowbrook Cottage" below the hill called Baldhead was at the time reputedly the largest residence in America. It later became the site of a Catholic seminary and was subsequently destroyed by fire. The seminary's replacement building is currently occupied by the tourist yoga facility Kripalu.
Tourism helped to boost interest in recreation and conservation in the area as early as 1929, when the Lenox Garden Club established the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary on Lenox Mountain, now owned by the
Massachusetts Audubon SocietyThe Massachusetts Audubon Society, founded in 1896 and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Protecting the nature of Massachusetts." MAS is independent of the National Audubon Society, and in fact was founded earlier...
. Bosquet Ski Area opened in 1932.
http://www.teachski.com/Areas/bousquet/cbousquet.htm The New York Philharmonic gave a series of summer concerts in 1934 at the Hanna Estate, which included part of West Stockbridge Mountain and the historical boundaries of which are entirely within the Yokun Ridge conservation zone. Two years later, the Boston Symphony began its longstanding seasonal residency at nearby
TanglewoodTanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts and is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. It has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937.- History :...
, the former Brooks Estate.
The area was designated as the "Stockbridge-Yokun Ridge Reserve" by the U.S. Forest Service in 1993 under its
Forest Legacy ProgramThe Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 Farm Bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses...
. This followed efforts begun in the 1970s by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council toward preserving this segment of the Taconics. The reserve is among five in the state authorized in 1993 by the program, which enables federal purchases of conservation easements. About 370 acres in the Stockbridge-Yokun Ridge Reserve were conserved using the program as of 2000.
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/landacq/fy00.pdf http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/forestry/other/MA_Needs_Assessment_93.pdf
Charles E. Little's
Greenways for America (1990) includes the term "Stockbridge-Yokun Ridge" in a section concerning activities of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council. The map submitted by the state in a 1993 proposal for the reserve did not itself label the area "Yokun Ridge," but a later map deliniating the zone, published by the BNRC in 1999, incorporated the term.
https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/greenways/little_mc214.html#scope Maps of the U.S. Geological Survey don't recognize "Yokun Ridge" as a place name, nor does the agency's
Geographic Names Information SystemThe Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer...
as of 2009.
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=106:2:4092334980066195::NO:::
http://www.bnrc.net/mrsid/bin/show.pl.
An earlier term for part of the "Yokun Ridge" area that excluded the long and distinct ridge of West Stockbridge Mountain, was the "Lenox Range." Unlike "Yokun Ridge," the term "Lenox Range" appears in the 1939 volume
The Berkshire Hills by the Federal Writers Project (page 88) and also in a 1900 article concerning Lenox in
New England Magazine. http://www.berkshireweb.com/themap/lenox/history/estates.html "Lenox Range" is a somewhat amorphous landform, unrecognized by the GNIS, parts of which appear to correlate with what the USGS currently labels "Lenox Mountain," as well as perhaps including numerous other nearby hilltops.
Recreation
Various properties within the Yokun Ridge conservation zone are owned by the non-profit Berkshire Natural Resources Council] (BNRC), the Massachusetts Audbon Society (MAS), and the towns of Lenox, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge. BNRC maintains trails through its Olivia's Lookout property on West Stockbridge and Lenox Mountain; they also manage a roadside scenic vista along Lenox Road at the Stockbridge/ Lenox border, as well as Steven's Glen, a waterfall on Lenox Mountain Brook. The Massachusetts Audubon Society maintains a network of hiking trails at their Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox. Cooperative agreements with towns, private landholders, and MAS and BNRC have resulted in the marking of a ridgeline trail extending from the southern end of West Stockbridge Mountain to the Bousquet Ski Area. The trails are open to hiking, skiing, picnicing, and other pursuits. Hunting, dog walking, and mountain biking are permitted in some areas.
External links