Abby Epplett, Historian

During my trip to the Berkshires in July 2023, I took a hike at Questing , a seventeen-acre property owned by The Trustees of Reservations. I visited several other properties owned by the Trustees during this trip, including Ashintully Gardens , Tyringham Cobble , and Mission House . Like these other properties, this park had its own unique history. The trails of Questing go up and around Leffingwell Hill , named after brothers William and Jerome Leffingwell who built a farm on the property and brought their families to live with them. Both brothers died in horrific farming accidents. In 1873 at age fifty-two, William was kicked to death by a horse, leaving his wife with eleven children. In 1879 at age forty-eight, Jerome was crushed by a thirty-foot long timber at a barn construction site and died several days later. After these accidents, surviving family members abandoned the seemingly cursed property and moved West. Hikers can see the ruins of this farm while...

During my adventure through the Berkshires in July 2023, I visited Mission House , a property owned by the Trustees of Reservations located across the street from Historic New England’s Merwin House . This self-guided tour comes in two sections: a small museum telling the history of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians , and a Georgian style home with antique furniture. Although more familiar with earlier colonial history than the average American, I did not know much about this community before visiting the museum, but the beautifully designed signage told the full story. While history textbooks frequently reference Cherokee Nation when describing colonization and displacement, European colonizers perpetuated the same acts of violence against many nations, including those who lived in Stockbridge. The exhibit telling this history began with the ancestors of the Mohicans and other Indigenous people, who arrived in the area between 12,500 and...

During my trip to the Berkshires in July 2023, I visited Tyringham Cobble , a 240 acre preserve owned by The Trustees of Reservations . While the Cobble Loop Trail is just 2 miles (3.2 km), with the option to add on a 0.25 mile (400 m) out-and-back trail to a local pavilion, parts of the path overlap the historic Appalachian Trail . Clear signage throughout the route ensures that visitors do not become lost on the 2,000 mile (3,540 km) trail and end up in Maine or Florida. The hilly trail is studded with stone, perhaps contributing to its early name “Cobble Hill”. Beginning in 1792, a Shaker village developed in this area. ( The last former Shaker village I visited was Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, NH back in August 2022. ) According to the National Park Service, Tyringham Shaker Village was the fourth of its kind in Massachusetts alone during the height of Shakerism. Nearby Jerusalem Road was named by the Shakers, along with adjacent Shaker Pond. The...

This post begins a new series! I took a trip to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts during mid July 2023 and visited many historic places along the way. My first stop was Ashintully Gardens in Tyringham, MA , ruins of a grand estate currently preserved by The Trustees of Reservations . According to the official website of the Trustees, this organization “is here to protect and share the Massachusetts places people love for their exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value”. I have visited several parks managed by the Trustees, many of which will appear in future blog posts.