Holyoke Range

The Holyoke Range is the chain of hills located just to the south of the Hampshire campus.

Hiking
There are many great paths on the Holyoke Range.

History of the Holyoke Range
Did you know that Bay Road follows the route of the original road from western Massachusetts to Boston in colonial times? Or that the Horse Caves on the north side of Mount Norwottock were formed at the contact point between old sedimentary rock and a basalt lava flow, and were reputedly used by Daniel Shays and his men after the failure of their rebellion? Or that the north and south sides of the Holyoke Range each have a different kind of forest?

In 1974, a group of 20 Hampshire students and their faculty advisors, Louis Wilcox and Joan Martin, undertook a study of the Holyoke Range, the chain of hills located just to the south of the Hampshire campus. The resulting study, called The Holyoke Range: a Study of its History, Resources and Land Use became a landmark description of this interesting local area, and brought together a wide range of hard to find information specific to the Range. It was edited by Steven Berkowitz, and formed part of his Division III exam.

The report covers the history and geology of the Range, its topography, climate, soils, water resources, vegetation and wildlife. It also discusses historical sites, land use, and planning issues. Although some of the information is now dated, the report still provides valuable information on the local area. A large number of hand drawn maps supplement the text.

This group project is an early example of Hampshire students putting the College motto (Non Satis Scire: To Know is Not Enough) into practice. Not only did the students research the information contained in the report, they conducted field studies and interviews, and then published their findings in a easily accessible form for others to use. It remains a valuable resource for the residents of the local area, and is used by schools and other groups on an ongoing basis. The library has several copies of the Holyoke Range Report--check it out and see for yourself.

Excerpts from the Holyoke Range Report
During January and Spring, 1974, a group of twenty students and two faculty members at Hampshire College participated in an interdisciplinary study of the Holyoke Range in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. The project was a part of Hampshire's ongoing Environmental Quality Program...

The primary goal of this study was to produce a unified document discussing the natural, cultural and land use history of the Holyoke Range; the main ecological characteristics of the Range, along with a look at man's current uses and their affects; and finally an analysis of various plans and recommendations for future land uses...(p.iv)

The Connecticut River flows south from headwaters on the Canadian border. It separates Vermont from New Hampshire, meanders through Massachusetts and Connecticut, and empties finally into Long Island Sound. The river passes mills and factories, forests and farms. Its flow provides electricity for four states, and carries the silts which replenish the fields along its banks. The Connecticut also carries waste and pollution most of its length, which it deposits in a wide flood plain around Essex, Connecticut.

Hadley, Massachusetts is a town on the Connecticut. It is settled some 90 miles from the sea, at the base of a group of small mountains: the Holyoke Range. Mt Norwottuck, the highest peak, rises 1,000 feet above the river. While surrounding land is rolling, the Range is jagged and rock bound. It appears to grow out of nothing, and stands out as a landmark from miles around. The land on the Range is divided among five towns: Hadley, South Hadley, Amherst, Granby, and Belchertown. The history of the Range is very much involved with the history of these towns. (p.5)

The Holyoke Range exists today because it is capped by a hard, erosion resistant basalt sheet commonly known as trap-rock. The basalt is a member of a series of lava flows two hundred million years old, blasted out from the depths of the earth in volcanoes that extended from the Deerfield area (twenty miles north of the Range) south to New Haven. The nearly continuous set of ridges from the Deerfield Range to East Rock outside of New Haven remind us of this turbulent era.

Geology is perhaps the most significant natural process affecting the Holyoke Range. The formation of the Range and its current features can be directly linked with geological events of global importance, such as continental drift (plate tectonics), the formation of the entire Appalachian Mountain chain, and most recently the intercontinental glaciers. The specific rock forming and deforming events, while only local in occurence, are representative of universal geological processes. The Range is especially unique from the geologist's standpoint because the results of so many of these processes are exposed and readily accessible.

Even more important, the geology has determined the topography and soil development features of the Range and can thus be shown to control the development of forest communities, surface and ground-water conditions, and ultimately how man is affected by and makes use of the land. (p.19)

The main topographic features of the Study Area are shown in the Base Map...This map emphasizes that the Range area consists both of the steep ridge and extensive areas of less abrupt slopes and foothills...

The steep cliffs and talus slipes on the north are due to the continuous fracturing of the Basalt ridge cap. This breakage, due primarily to freezing and thawing of water within the rock, occurs perpendicularly to the dip of the rocks, thus causing the north slope to be the steeper. Columnar jointing is exhibited at many places along these cliffs. The notches, or "cracks" between the peaks are along old fault zones, where the rocks have been fractured and eroded away faster than at other locales. Tinker Hill and Little Tinker are the cones of ancient volcanoes, now covered over with glacial till. The hill east of Dry Brook is caused by a "dike". The smaller, oval-shaped hills between the roads and the main ridge are drumlins, deep accumulations of glacial till.

The most striking valley feature in the area is the Dry Brook Gorge, which must have been created by a river much more substantial than the present brook. One mysterious topographic feature is the complex ridge-valley system throughout Granby, most striking on an aerial photograph. We have yet to reach a convincing explanation for them.

Thus the topography of the range as it appears today is the by-product of the continuously dynamic conflict between the mountain forming and mountain eroding processes. (p.37)

The Holyoke Range is unique from a vegetational standpoint because it has both north and south facing slopes. Its position is ecotonal; in other words, it is in a broad transitional zone where two or more plant communities may be found...The two major forest communities found on the Range are an Oak-Hickory (south facing slope) and a Hemlock-Northern hardwoods (north facing slope.)

Generally speaking, the range has four principle environments, each with its own vegetational community. Factors other than slope which affect the vegetation are temperature, water, wind and soil. The north slope is cooler, moister, steeper, and has thinner soils. The Hemlock-Northern hardwoods forest and environment on this slope is typical of forests farther north. The south slope is warmer, dryer, and less steep. The Oak-Hickory forest here is more typical of regions south of here. Near the base of the Range is a third community, the Oak-Chestnut disclimax forest, which is typical of most of this area. The term disclimax refers to a "climax community which is maintained by continuous human activity of a specific nature" (Eyre, 1968). The fourth community is located on the exposed, wind-swept ridge and is a small tree-shrub community. Some species of lichens found here are commonly found in the Alpine flora of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. In addition, some exposed trap-rock ridges on the south slope have grasses (Andropogon) similar to prairie communities... (p.65)