Berkshires

The Berkshires (locally /ˈbɜːrkʃɪərz, -ʃərz/) are a highland region located in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut in the United States. Generally, "Berkshires" may refer the range of hills in Massachusetts that lie between the Housatonic and Connecticut Rivers.[1] Highlands of northwest Connecticut may be seen as part of the Berkshires and sometimes called the Northwest Hills or Litchfield Hills. The segment of the Taconic Mountains in Massachusetts is often considered a part of the Berkshires, although they are geologically separate and are a comparatively narrow range along New York's eastern border.

This article is about a geologic and cultural region in the United States. For other uses, see Berkshire (disambiguation).

Berkshires
Berkshire Hills, Berkshire Mountains, The Berks
Highest point
PeakCrum Hill
Elevation2,841 ft (866 m)
Coordinates42°42′40″N 73°01′11″W
Dimensions
Length98 mi (158 km) north-south
Geography
Berkshires labeled as B
CountryUnited States
StatesMassachusetts and Connecticut
Range coordinates42°10′0.325″N 73°8′58.385″W
Geology
Type of rockMetamorphic

Also referred to as the Berkshire Highlands, Berkshire Hills, Berkshire Mountains, and Berkshire Plateau, the region enjoys a vibrant tourism industry based on music, arts, and recreation. Geologically, the mountains are a range of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Berkshires were named among the 12 Last Great Places by The Nature Conservancy.[2]

Definition

The term "The Berkshires" has overlapping but non-identical political, cultural, and geographic definitions.

Political

Politically, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, was formed as a governmental unit in 1761. It includes the western extremity of the state, with its western boundary bordering New York and its eastern boundary roughly paralleling the watershed divide separating the Connecticut River watershed from the Housatonic River and Hoosic River watersheds. However, like most other counties in Massachusetts, the active governmental role of Berkshire County has been abolished, so has no legal or governmental function.[3]

Cultural
The Berkshires region of Massachusetts, with Berkshire County in dark purple.

Culturally, the term "Berkshires" includes all of the highland region in western Massachusetts west of the Connecticut River and lower Westfield River. The cultural region also includes the Taconic Mountains bordering New York, which are geologically distinct from the Berkshires orogeny. Southwest Vermont and the Taconic region of New York are occasionally grouped with the Berkshires cultural region.

Sir Francis Bernard, the royal governor (in office 1760–1769), named the area "Berkshire" to honor his home county in England. In the present, the name of the modern American region is pronounced differently (BERK-sheer, -⁠shər) to the modern English County (BARK-sheer, -⁠shər).

Geographic
The Mount Greylock massif seen from the west in winter, with the deep valley known as "The Hopper" directly below the summit

Geologically and physically, the Berkshires are the southern continuation of the Green Mountains of Vermont, distinct from them only by their lower average elevation and by virtue of what side of the border they fall on. In physical geography, the Berkshires extend from the Housatonic River and Hoosic River valleys in western Massachusetts, to the Connecticut River valley in north-central Massachusetts, and to the foot of the lower Westfield River valley in south-central Massachusetts. In Connecticut, where they are referred to as the Litchfield Hills, they extend east from the upper Housatonic River valley in the northwest part of the state.

Geologically, the Berkshires are bordered on the west by the Taconic Mountains, the south by the Hudson Highlands, and to the east, they are bordered by the Metacomet Ridge. They are on the average 1,000 ft (300 m) lower and less prominent than the Green Mountains of Vermont, and form a broad, dissected plateau punctuated by hills and peaks and cut by river valleys. The Berkshires topography gradually diminishes in profile and elevation from west to east and from north to south, except where rivers have cut deep gorges and sharp bluff faces into the Berkshire plateau.

Formation

The Berkshires and related Green Mountains formed over half a billion years ago when Africa collided with North America, pushing up the Appalachian Mountains and forming the bedrock of the Berkshires. Erosion over hundreds of millions of years wore these mountains down to the hills that we see today.[4]

Elevation

The average regional elevation of the Berkshires ranges from about 700 to 1,200 feet (210 to 370 m). One of the high points is Spruce Mountain, at 2,710 feet (830 m). The highest point in the Berkshires physiographic region is Crum Hill, 2,841 feet (866 m), in the town of Monroe.

Rivers

The Housatonic River, Hoosic River, Westfield River, and Deerfield River watersheds drain the Berkshire region in Massachusetts; in Connecticut the main river drainages are the Farmington River, the Naugatuck River, the Shepaug River, and the Housatonic River.

Counties

The Berkshire hills runs through:

Municipalities

The largest municipalities associated with the Berkshires cultural region include Pittsfield, North Adams, Great Barrington, Williamstown, Stockbridge, Lee, and Lenox, Massachusetts.

History

During the American Revolution a Continental Army force under Henry Knox brought captured cannons from Fort Ticonderoga by ox-drawn sleds south along the west bank of the Hudson River from the fort to Albany, where he then crossed the Hudson. Knox and his men continued east through the Berkshires and finally arrived in Boston. This feat, known as the "Noble train of artillery", was accomplished in the dead of winter, 1775–1776. The Berkshires is also home to Hancock Shaker Village, which is the oldest continuously working farm in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Hancock Shaker Village is a landmark destination of 750 acres, 20 historic Shaker buildings, and over 22,000 Shaker artifacts. On the National Historic Register, it is one of the most comprehensively interpreted Shaker sites in the world.

Ecology
A view of the Berkshires from near North Adams, Massachusetts

The Berkshires lie within the New England/Acadian forests ecoregion.[5]

Similarly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Massachusetts (Griffith et al. 1994) has defined six ecoregions within this area: Taconic Mountains, Western New England Marble Valleys, Lower Berkshire Hills, Berkshire Highlands, Vermont Piedmont, and Berkshire Transition. Each region is distinct from the others, providing a unique habitat assemblage.

Much of the Hoosic and Housatonic River valleys have underlying bedrock limestone and marble which contribute to calcareous wetlands unique in Massachusetts. The alkaline pH waters support a diversity of plants and animals intolerant of more acidic waters, some of which are state-listed rare or endangered. Combined with the rich mesic forests ranging from the northern hardwood to the taiga or sub-alpine, the Berkshires have a valuable, biologically diverse ecosystem.

The classic study of the vegetation of the Berkshire Highlands was Egler's 1940 monograph,[6] covering the flora of an area stretching roughly from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the west to Hatfield, Massachusetts, in the east, and from Goshen, Connecticut, in the south to the Vermont border in the north.

Today, efforts are being made by many organizations to preserve and manage this region for biological diversity and sustainable human development.[7]

Tourism

The Berkshires have numerous shops, motels, hotels, museums, and trails,[8][9] including part of the Appalachian Trail, large tracts of wilderness and parks Berkshire Botanical Garden and Hebert Arboretum The area includes Bash Bish Falls, the tallest waterfall in Massachusetts.

The Berkshire region is noted as a center for the visual and performing arts, many institutions which are associated with Williams College. The art museums include the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Clark Art Institute, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA), Berkshire Museum, Hancock Shaker Village, and the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA). Performing-arts institutions in the Berkshires include Tanglewood Music Center and Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Bang on a Can Summer Festival for contemporary music in North Adams; Shakespeare & Company in Lenox; summer stock theatre festivals such as the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, and Berkshire Playwrights Lab in Great Barrington;[10] and America's first and longest-running dance festival, Jacob's Pillow, in the town of Becket.

See also

References
  1. "Berkshire Hills". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
  2. "Sustainable Berkshire Regional Plan Adopted" (PDF). Berkshire Planning, page CR1. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  3. "County Government". Secretary of the State of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  4. Raymo, Chet and Raymo, Maureen E. Written in Stone: A Geologic History of the Northeastern United States. Globe Pequot, Chester, Connecticut, 1989.
  5. Olson, D. M, E. Dinerstein; et al. (2001). "Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth". BioScience. 51 (11): 933–938. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Egler, F. E. 1940. "Berkshire Plateau Vegetation, Massachusetts". Ecological Monographs 10:147-192.
  7. See also: Natural History of the Berkshires Archived August 29, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "North Berkshire". Berkshire Maps. March 19, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  9. "South Berkshire". Berkshire Maps. March 19, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  10. "Home". berkshireplaywrightslab.org. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Berkshire Hills.
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