Holyoke Range and Skinner State Parks encompass a landscape in Hadley, South Hadley, Amherst, Belchertown, and Granby shaped by deep geologic history and long human use. The Holyoke Range was formed 200 million years ago as lava welled up into the valley and sediments were washed in from nearby mountains, creating an east-west backbone of basalt over layers of conglomerate and mudstone. This geology produced varied plant communities, with Oak-Hickory forest on south-facing slopes, Hemlock, White Pine, Birch, Beech, and Maple on north-facing slopes, unusual prairie-like species on rocky outcrops called the Balds, and abundant wildlife including deer, foxes, songbirds, and raptors. For over 12,000 years before European settlement, Native Americans knew and used these lands, and the larger peaks were sacred to the local Nonotuck people of the Connecticut Valley. Mount Holyoke, named for Elizur Holyoke, became part of colonial settlement after Hadley was founded in 1659, served in the 18th century as a source of timber and later as sheep pasture, and in the 19th century became a popular scenic destination whose view over the Connecticut River inspired artists and writers including Thomas Cole, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Sylvia Plath. Its westernmost peak was the site of North America’s first summit house in 1821 and the state’s first mountain tramway in 1854; in 1851 John Frances “Fanny” French built a two-story mountaintop hotel that later expanded under family management into a larger resort that drew the growing middle class and a few famous visitors. After a long history of resort development on Mount Holyoke, silk manufacturer Joseph Allen Skinner deeded the first 375 acres to the Commonwealth in 1940, and later purchases expanded the two parks to more than 3,000 acres, now known for scenic summits, marked trails, and year-round public recreation.

Photo: Don Morfe