This section of Route 20 was built to bypass “Jacob's Ladder,” the steep and difficult hill for which the trail was named. On September 10, 1910, hundreds of spectators and auto club members came from across the Northeast to celebrate the new road, and a rough slab of native stone from the old Calvin Morey homestead was set as a monument to the road's opening. Around this boulder were placed stones brought from many parts of the world, including a bit of stone from Blarney Castle, amethyst from Mexico, Chester granite, Lee marble, and Longmeadow brownstone. In 1930 the dry-laid structure was moved across the street, and in 1946 it was moved to its present site and set in mortar. Old postcards and photographs show that the stones were relocated over time and that some were lost, including the sculptural capstone, while the stone inscribed with the eagle and letter “A” also changed location. In September 2010, two new stones were added for the centennial of the road's opening, one brought from British Columbia, Canada, by George M. Westinghouse and his wife Marrianna, descendants of George Westinghouse and his wife Marguerite, who raised the flag at the original 1910 celebration, and the other a locally quarried granite commissioned by the Jacob's Ladder Scenic Byway Advisory Board from the Chester Granite Company in Otis, Massachusetts. The Jacob's Ladder Trail itself evolved over many centuries, beginning in part as Native American footpaths and later becoming, in the late 1700s, a supply and travel route linking Boston to Albany and “the West.” When the modern road opened in 1910, it was renowned as the country's first automobile mountain crossing, reaching an elevation of 1,775 feet at this location. The legendary “Jacob's Ladder” was a steep section of road that local lore said “killed a man a week,” and its muddy conditions, numerous ditches, and steep slopes made it dangerous for turn-of-the-century travelers, so the new route bypassed the steepest part of Morey Hill. About 1915, the Phelps family built a viewing tower, gas station, and souvenir shop on the summit west of the present cairn site, and the Summit House, built in 1926, later housed a restaurant, gift shop, and lodging before being sold in 1946 and operating as the Deer Inn until 1986.

Photo: Steve Stoessel