Note A

Hoosac Tunnel

• First proposed (for canal)-- 1819
• Chartered --1848
• Commenced --1851
• Headings met-- Nov. 27, 1874
• Completed --1875
• Total length-- 25,031feet
• Depth Central Shaft-- 1,028 feet
• Depth of West Shaft-- 318 feet
• Size of Central Shaft-- 15x27 feet
• Size of West Shaft-- lOxl4 feet
• Height of Eastern Summit-- 1,429 feet
• Height of Western Summit-- 1,718 feet
• Grade per mile-- 26-40
• Error in line of point of meeting-- 9-16 in.
• Water pumped from C. S.-- 214 gals. per min.
• Rock excavated-- 1,900,000 tons
• Height-- 20 feet
• Width-- 24 feet
• Water discharged East End.-- 100 gals. per min.
• Water discharged West End-- 600gals. per min.
• Men employed-- 800 to 900
• Miles from Boston-- 136
• First train through-- Feb. 9, 1875
• First Freight-- April 5, 1875
• First Passenger-- Oct. 13, 1875
• Above tide at East Portal-- 766 feet
• Total length of brick arching-- 7,573
• No. of brick used in arching-- 20,000,000
• Cost-- $14,000,000
• Lives lost-- 192

Note B

Perry says in "Origins in Williamstown:" "When the Six Nations dwindled they gave over by solemn treaty to the Stockbridge Indians, who were a branch of the Mohegans, these hunting grounds of Washington County and Western Vermont. Annually passed up from southern Berkshire these hunting parties of the Indians through Williamstown into these gameful forests of the north,-and their rights were respected by the Whites when the lands were settled." In 1767, 101 land owners of southern Vermont made an agreement with the Stockbridge Indians, to secure their rights in twelve townships which they claimed.

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Note C

Colden in his history of the Five Nations 1755, makes this statement, "I have been told by Old Men in New England, who remembered the time when the Mohawks made war on the Indians, that as soon as a single Mohawk was discovered in the Country, their Indians raised a cry from Hill to Hill, A MOHAWK, A MOHAWK, upon which they all fled like, sheep before wolves without attempting to make the least resistance, whatever odds were on their side."

This cry was raised at the attack on the Indians at Turners Falls in probably this same manner and produced the same effect, as the whole camp of Indians attacked became wild with terror and were almost exterminated in the turmoil which ensued.

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Note D

In a curious narrative of the Indian wars by Nathaniel Saltonstall, written at the time, 1676, there is this reference to the residence of King Philip on the trail. "King Philip and some of the Northern Indians being wandered up toward Albany, the Mohucks marched out very strong. putting them to flight, pursuing them as far as Hoosicke River, which is about two days march from the east side of Hudson's River to the northeast-which ill success they did not expect, having lately endeavored to make up the ancient animosities, did very much to daunt and discourage the Northern Indians-." This is evidently the result of Philip's treachery before referred to. But does not this description give us the thought that the pursuit was very likely over our Indian Trail, since we know Philip appeared afterward in Northfield. The writer is not aware whether Philip's course on the retreat is known or not.

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Note E

Bernardston Grant, so called, comprising a large part of present Florida, was a tract, bordering on East Hoosuck or Adams, of 7350 acres measuring 900 x 1224 rods, which was given to the proprietors of the town of Bernardston, Mass., in 1765, to make up to them the loss of lands, which they suffered on account of the new division line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The southern line of this Grant is now the boundary between Florida and Savoy.

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Note F

The Transcript of that week says: "The total depth of the shaft to the bed of the railroad will be 1034 feet of which 580 feet had been dug, at the time of the accident. The opening at the surface was fifty feet wide, and remained at that width until bed rock was reached forty feet below. From that point the shaft measured fifteen by twenty seven feet. Platforms were built across the shaft at intervals of from twelve to twenty three feet, and connected by stairs or ladders, a space being left for the buckets used in sending excavated material to the surface.

The lowest platform was seventy feet above the bottom of the shaft, at that time. Over the opening at the surface was a wooden building, and on the first landing were stored tools of all kinds, drills, hammers and chisels. Three hundred iron drills were precipitated down the shaft when the landing gave way. Thomas Mallery, who made the descent the following morning was employed at the shaft, and had been a sailor-he spliced the ropes in true sailor style, and made all the arrangements for the descent. At 4.00 A. M. Sunday morning he made the first descent and remained down for forty minutes and was drawn up in a fainting condition, he reported that there was about fifteen feet of water in the shaft and no sign of the lost men. Monday he again descended, and was soon drawn back to the surface as the air became so foul that nothing could be done. Mallery was a man between forty and fifty years of age, and this deed of extreme bravery, made him a marked man thereafter. Exactly one year after the bodies were recovered. The papers of that date say the remains were ready identified.

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Note G

This reference to a body of soldiers being lost in mid winter on Hoosac Mountain, has been repeated in many places. The facts were these: In the Campaigns of 1757-8, Rufus Putnam, cousin of the famous General Israel, and himself afterward General, was engaged in service near Lake George. The term of service of himself and others from New England expired January1, 1758 and on February 3, they planned to return to New England. Putnams Memoirs, published 1903, tell of this trip. He says: "Our plan was to return by way of Hoosuck- it was called 30 miles to Hoosuck Fort, a Stockade Fort on Hoosuck River, belonging to Massachusetts. (This from Hudson River.) We had perhaps two or three days allowance. On February 4th, in passing some deserted Settlement, we left the river some considerable distance on the right, but unfortunately mistook a Western branch of it for the main river, the river was the only guide we depended on to find Fort Hoosuck." The next day was cold and stormy, several of the men had frozen their feet, their provisions were almost gone, and they discovered that they were on the wrong stream and many miles north of the Fort. From February 5th to 10th, they wandered across the mountains between Bennington and Wilmington, eating buds from the trees, and even their dog was eaten finally. They crossed the Deerfield and reached the head waters of Pelham Brook which they followed down to Hawks Fort in Charlemont, arriving in an almost exhausted and famished condition. This is undoubtedly the source of the tradition referred to by Dr. Gladden and others. The scene of the affair, was many miles north of Florida, in Woodford, Searsburg and Wilmington, Vermont. There were ten men in the party.

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Note H

Greylock. In early days known as "The Grand Hoosick" and later as Saddle Ball. Not until after 1800 was it known as Greylock.

The earliest use of this name is supposed to be in a letter of Prof. Cheater Dewey of Williamstown, under date of January 12, 1819 in which he says "Gray-Lock the highest and southern peak, lies about 5 miles east of South Williamstown, etc." Those who have seen this peak when its crest is whitened -with the first frosts or when fleecy clouds are drifting across it, are perfectly aware of the origin of the name, no other origin was ever given until very recently. The writer would be the last to try to perpetuate the new and ridiculous idea, that it was named from a dissolute Indian Chief, never a native of this region.

In his visit to North Adams in 1838, Nathaniel Hawthorne gives the local interpretation of the name in his conversation with the stage driver who said "Graylock or Saddleback is quite a respectable mountain; and I suppose the former name has been given to it because it often has a gray cloud, or lock of gray mist, upon its head." Two weeks later in a visit to the summit of Hoosac Mountain he saw Greylock with a cloud on its summit and wrote "Greylock is properly the name for the highest elevation." There was no hint of the Indian Chief tradition at that early date. Dewey's History of Berkshire 1829--says the name was derived from its hoary aspect in winter.

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Note I

Perry's Pass
This point is interesting for many reasons. As already described, all roads and trails have here crossed the mountain crest.

Here we know that we stand on the spot traversed by Indians, pioneers, scouts, soldiers, messengers and all travelers through the centuries.

Here we may note almost exactly the place in the highway which is the watershed between the Hudson and Connecticut valleys. From here we see into three states, and within the circle of vision we may see the sites of Fort Massachusetts, and West Hoosick, and to the southward see Stafford Hill, once thickly populated, but now deserted, whence the embattled farmers marched to fight at Bennington.

A short distance north of here, Hazen ran the northern boundary line of Massachusetts in 1741, which line, had it been run as planned would have made most of North Adams and Williamstown part of Vermont. Instead of running the line due west, it veered 1 deg. and 48 min. to the north.

Near here is the great glacial boulder, torn from its native cliff, far away, and deposited here by the ice current from the north.

Many will agree that Greylock itself is more inspiring to view from afar, than anything to be seen from its summit, and here the whole range is spread before us in its majesty, as changeable from day to day in its moods and aspects as the sea.

The view from Whitcomb summit is hardly different from what it has always been, while from the western crest, we see the work of man's hand on every side. In stage coach days a stop was always made at this point, so that travelers might enjoy this view, one which would never afterward leave their memory.

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Origin of the Name Hoosick

We find this name spelled in many ways in early maps and records, with all possible combinations of single and double "o" and "s," with or without a final "k", and with any of the vowels in the last syllable. It is odd, that at the present time the authorized spelling of the mountain is Hoosac of the river Hoosic and of the town Hoosick, when a uniform spelling might be expected.

Hoosick or Hosack, according to Ruttenber, means "place of stones" or "stony place." The Hoosick Patent was granted in 1688 to Maria Van Renssalaer and others, and the name Hoosick is mentioned by the Mohawks as early as 1664.

In Kellog's survey, 1739, which is the earliest map of this valley the river is called "Hoosuck."

In the next map 1749 made by Nathaniel Dwight the main stream past Fort Massachusetts is called "Lassacutaquoge" and the name Hoosuck is applied to the branch which we now call "Little Hoosic" in Stephentown. In this same map the lower course of the stream is called "Scaticook River."

We do not find these names repeated in later maps. In the plot of Col. William's Grant at Fort Massachusetts in 1751 the stream is called "Hoosuck River".

The north branch of the stream toward Stamford was called by the Indians "Mayunsook" and the south branch in Kellogs map is called "Ashuwilticook."

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Gladden says: "People sometimes go to Lenox, or Stockbridge or Pittsfield, and imagine they have visited the hills of Berkshire. Now these are all very respectable towns, and quite worth going to see; but the supposition that one finds the Berkshire Hills within their borders is a very good joke indeed. One who has never seen the Deerfield Gorge or the Adams valley from Hoosac Mountain; who has never climbed to the top of Prospect, or of Bald Mountain, or Mount Hopkins or Greylock; who has never invaded the awful stillness of that sacred place, the Hopper, such a person should talk modestly of Berkshire scenery."

Hawthorne said: (Date 1838.) "A walk this forenoon up the mountain ridge that walls in the town toward the east. The road is cut zig-zag, the mountain being generally as steep as the roof of a house; yet the stage to Greenfield passes over this road two or three times a week. Graylock rose up behind me, appearing with its two summits and a long ridge between, like a huge monster crouching down slumbering, with its head slightly elevated. Graylock is properly the name for the highest elevation-Graylock had a cloud on his head this morning-the base of a heavy white cloud."

Hawthorne also mentions the hill with a single gravestone on it, which is near the western portal of the Tunnel. Daniel Sherman who lies there, lived near the summit of eastern crest of Hoosac Mt. His grave is an object of great curiosity, to those who journey over the new Trail from the south, and those who visit the Tunnel. He was an eccentric person who desired to be buried on the highest knoll in the valley-to have his grave paved on the surface, and to be buried standing with hat and boots on. He was buried here in 1819, all the conditions being complied with, except that he lies in a horizontal position. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

Gladden says: "People often debate whether this view from the western crest be not finer than that from the eastern; but with many the preference always rests with that which they have looked on last."

Hawthorne says: "Williamstown appears as a white village and a steeple in a gradual hollow with huge mountain swells heaving up like immense subsiding waves, far and wide around it."

Timothy Dwight in his Travels thus speaks of the Hoosac River: (1823) "At the bottom of the valley ran the Hoosac River, one of the handsomest streams in the world, over a fine bed of pebbles and gravel. It borders an almost uninterrupted succession of intervales, extremely rich, and ornamented with the most lively verdure. Through these the Hoosac winds its course alternated with luxurious meadows and pastures, green to the waters edge, fringed with willows or crowned with trees. The hills on either side varied their distance from one half mile to two miles and were immensely beautiful and majestic."

Most people who view this stupendous valley, have the thought that it must at some time have been the bed of a lake. The supposition is correct. The retreating ice sheet at the close of the Glacial Age, held back an immense body of water in these valleys. This lake has been called Lake Bascom, in honor of the late beloved professor of Williams College, John Bascom. The level of this lake may be noted by those who stand on the western crest, by taking notice of the terrace along the foot of Saddle Mountain, where the Beaman Reservoir is to be seen. The water level was along the edge of this terrace. A nearer spot to notice it is the so called Windsor Lake, immediately at the foot of the Hoosac Mountain which was not far beneath the water level of that age. The terrace along the Hoosac Mountain to Adams also marks this level, as does the similar terrace above Coles Grove in Williamstown.

Lake Bascom occupied the valleys of Cheshire, Adams, North Adams, Stamford, Williamstown, Berlin, Petersburg, Pownal and Bennington, leaving Mt. Anthony in Pownal an Island in its midst. Before the ice wall allowed it to drain westward, it had an outlet down the Berlin valley into the Kinderhook Creek. Note the little Clarksburg Reservoir which was on the shore line of Lake Bascom, and seemingly once part of it. Follow the contour line, marking the 1100 feet elevation, and you will follow the approximates shore line of Lake Bascom.

AUTHORITIES

Ruttenber's History of the Hudson River tribes.
Bulletin No. 30, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington.
Beauchamp's "History of the New York Iroquois."
Bulletin No. 78 of the New York State Museum. Perry's "Origins in Williamstown."
Norton's "Redeemed Captive."
Gladden's "Hub to the Hudson."
"The Mohawk Trail" by Judge John Aiken in Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Memorial Asso. Maps showing early trails and roads were consulted in the State Archives at both Boston and Albany. References to legislation are found in the Journals of the Provincial Legislatures.