The story of Fort Massachusetts is so familiar that it will not be repeated with much detail but its association with the Trail calls for some account of it.

The fort was built primarily as a frontier post on the great trail from Canada, over which attack might be expected on the western frontier. It does not seem to have been built because any attack had ever been made over it, rather, as we know its existence invited the attack which followed.

A secondary reason for its construction was that it marked the western boundary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and it was to stand as a warning to the approaching Dutch settlers, that they would not be allowed to settle beyond it.

Other forts had been built in places where it was presumed that the invaders might leave the Lake and cross the mountains north of here, as Forts Shirley, Pelham and Dumner. Fort Massachusetts was built in 1745, in size about 80 by 120 feet, of logs out on the spot, and joined by carpenters. Forty three men spent the ensuing winter in this fort. A few facts which appear in the records of that time show us that the trail toward Albany was now a fair road for the entire distance, that the supplies for the fort were all brought from Albany, which proves that no road passable for vehicles had yet been made over the Hoosac divide.

We learn, that as spring opened, John Perry, one of the carpenters of the Fort, evidently not expecting any disturbance, built the first house to be erected along the line of the Trail between Charlemont and Pownal.

This spot was about a mile west of the fort near the Greylock crossing into Blackinton. He was barely settled in his new home when the attack on the fort in August resulted in its destruction and in his own capture and removal to Canada. In June of that year, the presence of skulking savages was revealed by an attack on the Fort in which Elisha Nims was killed. This party had come down the Canada Trail and done much damage further down the Hoosic.

August 16, 1746 the chaplain of the Fort, Rev. Mr. Norton and fifteen others, crossed Hoosac Mountain to Fort Massachusetts. Finding the garrison in a sickly condition and their supplies low, fourteen men were sent back to Deerfield next day for assistance. At that time Vaudreuil was already in ambush near the Fort. At the spot where the trail crossed the river they were so near the returning men that they might have touched them, but they allowed them to continue unmolested. On the 19th the attack was made from the northern side, from the nearest projecting ledges. The attacking force of French and Indians numbered 900. Of the defenders two were wounded and one killed. On the 20th the Fort surrendered and was burned to the ground. For a few hours the French flag floated over the Fort,- perhaps the first and only time that French conquest was so marked, in this state.

The return march began that night our Trail being followed back to present Eagle Bridge, whence the path northward to Lake Champlain was taken. The captives were treated with much kindness the entire distance, altho as they passed down the Hoosic every dwelling and barn went up in flames. The French report of this says: "Barns, mills, churches and tanneries, were destroyed and the harvest laid waste for a distance of thirty or forty miles." This destruction was all within present New York boundaries. While the captives were making their way along our trail westward, a large party of the attacking Indians at the Fort were making their way over it eastward, crossing the Hoosac range to the Deerfield valley.

Five days after the attack on Fort Massachusetts they fell upon some Deerfield people in the meadows killing five of them and taking one boy captive. This band had probably expected to intercept the company which was to bring relief to the Fort. In this they were disappointed. Hurrying over the hills across country they again joined the main force at Crown Point and returned to Canada with them. This attack is since known as the "Bars Fight."

The following year the Fort was rebuilt and in August of 1748 it was again assaulted by a force of several hundred French and Indians. The attack failed, and the garrison suffered the loss of one man killed and two wounded. Ephraim Williams was in command on this occasion,-which was not the case in the attack on the first Fort. This time, the attack was from the south and east, instead of from the north as before. The enemy driven off took themselves down the trail carrying their dead and wounded with them.

During the next few years Fort Massachusetts continued to be garrisoned by a small company, but it was finally abandoned about 1760, since the West Hoosick fort had become more convenient for those who had taken up settling lots in that vicinity. Many of these settlers were soldiers from Fort Massachusetts. For a few years skirmishes with the Indians continued to be frequent in West Hoosick.

During the building and existence of Fort Massachusetts there was probably no more frequent traveler over the Trail than Col. Ephraim Williams, who was killed in 1755 at Lake George. The years 1753 and 1754 were exciting ones in the lower Hoosic Valley. The settlers along the Trail in "Dutch Hoosick" or Petersburg were in continual alarm. The enemy was constantly seen prowling about.

In June 1755 a band of Indians swooped down upon the Trail in Charlemont, where they attacked the family of Moses Rice at work in the fields. Captain Rice was killed and others taken to Canada.

In 1756 Captain Chapin and two others were shot and killed near the West Hoosick fort, and June 7 of the same year Benjamin King and William Meacham, scouts from Fort Massachusetts were shot and scalped by Indians near the site of John Perry's burned cabin.

Not until 1763 when the idea of French conquest of this region was abandoned, did peace reign for a few years along the Trail, perhaps for the first time since white men had trodden it. During the expeditions to Crown Point and Ticonderoga many troops passed over the Trail bearing supplies and reinforcements to the scene of action, notably the company under Capt. Nathaniel Dwight of Belchertown and that of Capt. William Lyman of Northampton who marched over the Hoosac divide Sept. 27, 1755, with 124 men. In December of that year, many of these men returned by the same route, to spend their winter at home.

This seems the first recorded attempt to transport supplies in any large quantity over the Hoosacs. In 1751 new cannon, destined for Fort Massachusetts were shipped from Boston to New York, thence up the Hudson to Albany and overland to the fort. Very soon afterward, a road must have been constructed which was used in 1755.

In these expeditions of 1755 occurred the loss of oxen which is known to have happened in making the steep ascent of the first road from Cold River valley. An old native of Charlemont, early in the last century, wrote of seeing their bones when a youth at the foot of the cliffs, at this spot, which fact identifies the course of the road exactly.

With the construction of this road our Trail has become merged into the system of roads, and as a trail disappeared forever. It would be interesting to know when the first horse was used in crossing Hoosac Mountain. Horses are not mentioned in any of the early accounts of travel, and it is not probable that any were used until after the first road in 1753.