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Wachusett Mountain, Massachusetts and the Wachusett Village Inn and Conference Center

Norman
2004-08-11 14:57:38

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If you are not from Massachusetts, you've probably never heard of Wachusett Mountain, let alone be able to pronounce it as easily as the local inhabitants do.

The name "Wachusett" means "By the Great Hill" in Algonquin, a dialect spoken by the Nipmuck Native People, who at one time inhabited a village at the base of the mountain.

During the early Colonial period the mountain was an important center for the Native People, and was a focal point for their assembly during King Philip's War (1675-6). A century later it served as a gathering place during the French and Native People's War.

It certainly is a great hill, if one of the icons of nineteenth-century American literary culture, Henry David Thoreau, devoted an entire essay, Walk To Wachusett, where he poetically describes this magnificent mountain as being the "observatory of the state."

Located in the heart of Central Massachusetts, and less than an hour and half easy driving time from Boston, Providence, Hartford, and Nashua, the mountain is the highest point in Central Massachusetts east of the Berkshires, having a height of 2006 feet. Million of years ago the mountain may have been thousands of feet higher, however, due to erosion, wind and glacial activity the mountain has been reduced to its present height.

If you hike, cross country ski, snow shoe, or walk the mountain's seventeen miles of trails, you will come across vibrant three hundred year old trees, making it the largest known area of old growth forest east of the Connecticut River.

Upon reaching its summit, a treat is in store, a 360 degree view of southern New England including Mount Monadnock and the Boston skyline. Thoreau remarked: "there lay Massachusetts, spread out before us, in its length and breadth, like a map."

In 1962 Wachusett Mountain Associates, owned by the Crowley family, ...