Mount Ascutney

Mount Ascutney, a 3,144-foot monadnock in southeastern Vermont and the highest peak in Windsor County, rises abruptly above the Connecticut River Valley and dominates the surrounding landscape. Officially named by the federal government in 1960, it carries both colonial and Abenaki naming traditions, including the long-attested variant Kaskadenak; efforts in 2016 and 2018 to adopt that name instead were rejected after testimony affirmed both names as authentic and Native-rooted. Geologically, the mountain formed about 122 million years ago as part of the White Mountain plutonic-volcanic series and was later reshaped by glaciation. It has also anchored regional art, conservation, hiking, and skiing.

Windsor, Vermont · United States