Mount Greylock State Reservation is a flagship Massachusetts state park and the state's first wilderness state park, created after local businessmen bought and protected 400 acres at the summit by 1885 and later transferred the land to the Commonwealth following decades in which Native Americans encountered the mountain along the Mohawk Trail, farmers settled there in the 1760s, forests were cleared for farms and pasture, and extensive logging and mountain industries powered mills, produced charcoal, and caused erosion and landslides. Acquired in 1898, Mount Greylock is the highest point in southern New England at 3,491 feet, with views as far as 90 miles, and its geologic, natural, and cultural heritage includes bedrock formed a half billion years ago on the floor of a tropical sea, later uplifted into a mountain chain and worn down by erosion, a boreal forest at the summit unlike any other in southern New England, and a landscape that inspired artists and writers. During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps created the modern park in 1933-41 by completing Bascom Lodge on the summit, establishing trails and campgrounds, and building the parkway, and today the mountain's recovered forests and rivers support a tourism economy while the summit historic district includes Bascom Lodge and the War Memorial Tower, the state's official memorial to its war dead.

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick

Photo: Michael Herrick