The Taconic Mountains () are a 150-mile-long sub-range of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

lying on the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England. The range, which played a role in the history of geological science, is separated from the Berkshires and

Green Mountains The Green Mountains are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Vermont and are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains. The range runs primarily south to north and extends approximately from the border with Massachusetts to the border with Que ...

to the east by a series of valleys, principally those of the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United ...

, Battenkill River and Otter Creek. The Taconics' highest point is Mount Equinox in Vermont at ; among many other summits are Dorset Mountain, Mount Greylock and

Mount Everett Mount Everett is the highest peak in the southern Taconic Mountains, rising about 2,000 feet above its eastern footings in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Its summit area is notable for expansive vistas and an unusual dwarf forest of pitch pine and ...

.''Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont'' 5th ed. (2006). Green Mountain Club: Waterbury Center, Vermont Raymo, Chet and Raymo, Maureen E. (1989). ''Written in Stone: A Geologic History of the Northeastern United States.'' Chester, Connecticut: Globe Pequot.Doll, Charles G.
Centennial Geologic Map of Vermont
' (1961). United States Geological Survey: Washington

Forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

are predominately maple-beech-birch with some spruce-fir at higher elevations, "and oak and hickory common to the south and at lower elevations." Parts of the Taconics are in the New England-Acadian forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

. Although mostly private property, the Taconics contain a half-dozen sizable state forests and parks, as well as many preserves of lesser acreage protected by land trusts."Taconic Crest Project" Rensselaer Land Trust. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
"Equinox Highlands, Manchester and Dorset, Vermont." The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved February 13, 2011.Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape. Harvard Forest (2010). Harvard University."The Nature Conservancy and Intel Corporation Launch Berkshire Taconic Landscape Educational Web Site; New Educational Site for Parents, Students & Teachers Includes Educational Lesson Plans." (2002) PR Newswire Association, duplicated by thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved February 13, 2011. LL

/ref> Several hundred Mile, miles of trails are within these mountains, including parts of the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

Name

Taconic is likely from a

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

word meaning "in the trees". The spelling "Taghkanic", among several variant transliterations, is current for about a half-dozen locales, mostly within the immediate region. As written English, the term appears in a 1685 petition for the right to purchase land in western Massachusetts. Timothy Dwight IV used the name "Taughkannuc Mountain" in an account of his 1781 ascent of the summit later named

. Dwight's account was deemed the "first recorded ascent" of that peak in a 1989 text on regional hiking history. The term first entered geological literature in 1819 with Chester Dewey's "Sketch of the Mineralogy and Geology of the Vicinity of Williams' College". It gained prominence in the field when Dewey's protégé Emmons proposed the existence of a "Taconic System" in 1839 (see above). In the 20th century, it became attached to the theory of an

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

mountain-building event involving much of what is now eastern North America named the "

Taconic Orogeny The Taconic orogeny was a mountain building period that ended 440 million years ago (Ma) and affected most of modern-day New England. A great mountain chain formed from eastern Canada down through what is now the Piedmont of the east coast of the ...

Geology

The range is part of the Taconic

Allochthon upright=1.6, Schematic overview of a thrust system. The hanging wall block is (when it has reasonable proportions) called a window. A klippe is a solitary outcrop of the nappe in the middle of autochthonous material. An allochthon, or an alloc ...

, a local rock structure which traveled to its current position from about 25 miles to the east through low-angle thrusting. Rocks of this allochthon are older than the strata lying beneath, and consist of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliation (geology), foliated metamorphic rock formed from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. I ...

, and

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

, "plus some minor lenses of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

." The Taconic allochthon is larger than the current Taconic Mountains, extending westward toward the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. It formed during the Ordovician period in the collision of the North American Plate into a volcanic island arc. Geologist E-An Zen proved this allochthon's existence in 1966 via a study of the region's faulting, although it had been proposed around 1906 by Rudolf Ruedemann and separately by

Arthur Keith Sir Arthur Keith FRS FRAI (5 February 1866 – 7 January 1955) was a British anatomist and anthropologist, and a proponent of scientific racism. He was a fellow and later the Hunterian Professor and conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the ...

, each using concepts associated with French geologist Marcel Alexandre Bertrand. Their proposals regarding the Taconics, however, were viewed as unproven and controversial until Zen's work."The Taconic Controversy: What Forces Make a Range?," Appalachia: Vol. 73: No. 1, Article 5. An earlier and largely separate dispute over the age of the Taconic Mountains based on the region's sparse fossil record began in the 1830s and centered on the theory of

Ebenezer Emmons Ebenezer Emmons (May 16, 1799October 1, 1863), was an American geologist whose work includes the naming of the Adirondack Mountains in New York as well as a first ascent of Mount Marcy. Early life Emmons was born at Middlefield, Massachusetts, ...

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

that the range was older than its surroundings with a distinct geology he named "the Taconic System." In opposing Emmons' theory, James Hall of

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

initially gained prominent support from famed international scientists of the day, including

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

and

Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles ...

. Emmons died in 1863, yet as late as the 1880s two leading geologists of the era

James Dwight Dana James Dwight Dana Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (February 12, 1813 – April 14, 1895) was an American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist, and zoologist. He made pioneering studies of mountain-building, volcano, volcanic activity, and the ...

(Yale University) and Jules Marcou wrote of their continued and sometimes bitter disagreements over Emmons' theory. This early phase of ideas about the Taconic Mountains is compared with the Great Devonian Controversy that preoccupied British geologists for part of the 19th century.

Description

South Taconics

This area includes a locally significant and expansive area of undisturbed forest, although only a fraction is assured protection from development. Mount Washington State Forest and Taconic State Park are among the larger public properties within the immediate region. The highest summit here is

, home of a pitch pine and

scrub oak Scrub oak is a common name for several species of small, shrubby oaks. It may refer to: *the Chaparral plant community in California, or to one of the following species. In California *California scrub oak ('' Quercus berberidifolia''), a widesp ...

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

. Others include Mount Frissell, the south slope of which contains the highest point in Connecticut at ; Bear Mountain , the highest mountain peak in Connecticut; Alander Mountain , Brace Mountain ,; and Mount Fray , home of the Catamount Ski Area. The Appalachian Trail traverses the eastern escarpment of the range; the South Taconic Trail traverses the western escarpment, passing near Bash Bish Falls, reputedly Massachusetts' highest waterfall.

Central Segment and Upper Hoosic River Valley Region

From Catamount Ski Area north to the Hoosic River Valley, a straight-line distance of about 50 miles, the crest initially shifts slightly west. Notable summits in the southern part of this segment are Bald Mountain, , and Harvey Mountain, , as well as Beebe Hill, , with its summit fire tower. Several miles to the northeast of Harvey Mountain is West Stockbridge Mountain and the Lenox Mountain massif; taken together, modern conservationists have named these two separate areas Yokun Ridge, an zone extending from the Massachusetts Turnpike to the southerly neighborhoods of Pittsfield at elevations ranging between roughly .(2009) United States Board on Geographic Names. Database entry

Retrieved February 10, 2011. At Pittsfield, the crest shifts west once again to hills contained within Pittsfield State Forest and the contiguous Balance Rock Park and Bates Memorial State Park, where heights include Holy Mount , (once the location of religious rituals practiced by a former Shaker community) and Berry Hill , notable for its extensive stands of wild

azalea Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...

North of Jiminy Peak , the valley of Kinderhook Creek cuts through the hills. Here the westernmost ridgeline is dominated by Misery Mountain and Berlin Mountain and extending into

Pownal, Vermont Pownal is a New England town, town in Bennington County, Vermont, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 3,258. The town of Pownal includes the villages of Pownal (CDP) ...

. In this vicinity is Mount Greylock , the highest point in Massachusetts and the long ridge of Brodie Mountain. Significant public property within the Taconics' central segment includes New York's Beebe Hill and Harvey Mt. State Forest, Berlin State Forest, Pittsfield State Forest and the contiguous Taconic Ridge State Forest and Taconic Trail State Park in New York and Massachusetts, respectively, as well as the Mount Greylock State Reservation. Within this segment are also three long-distance trails (the

, the Taconic Crest Trail, and the Taconic Skyline Trail)s.''Massachusetts Trail Guide'' (2004). Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club.''Yokun Ridge'' (2005). Berkshire Natural Resources Council. Pittsfield, Massachusetts.''Mount Greylock'' (2001). Berkshire Natural Resources Council. Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Southern Vermont

North of the Massachusetts border, the profile of the Taconic Range is cut by the

Hoosic River The Hoosic River, also known as the Hoosac, the Hoosick (primarily in New York) and the Hoosuck (mostly archaic), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed October 3, 2011 tr ...

in the vicinity of

Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a New England town, town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester (town), Vermont, Manchester. As of the 2020 United States Census, US Cens ...

. Mount Anthony , notable for its caves and as the location of the former Southern Vermont College, stands as a satellite peak above the surrounding eroded terrain. North of Bennington, the range gradually rises to its highest prominence with peaks such as Mount Equinox , the high point of the Taconic Mountains, and Dorset Mountain , a New England 100 Highest list summit. Other notable summits include Grass Mountain , a New England Fifty Finest list mountain; and Mount Aeolus , the location of several defunct

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

quarries and the site of Aeolus Cave an important

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

hibernaculum. Designated hiking trails are located on Mount Equinox, Dorset Mountain, and Mount Aeolus, and several other peaks within the region.

Northern terminus

Immediately north of Danby, Vermont, the Taconic Range broadens and becomes lower. It exhibits several parallel ridgelines, dominated to the west by mountains composed of

and similar rock, most notably the ridgeline of Saint Catherine Mountain , with its conspicuous long cliff face visible from Wells and Poultney. The area around Lake Saint Catherine contains extensive slate quarries. The ridgeline to the east, composed of

and

, is dominated by the escarpment of Tinmouth Mountain , overlooking the Valley of Vermont to the east in the town of Tinmouth. A field of less descript ridges and peaks lies between these two summits.''DeLorme Topo 6.0'' (2004). Mapping software. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme.''Bomoseen State Park'' (1989). Vermont Agency of Natural Resources: Waterbury Center, Vermont. Near the end of the range, in the vicinity of Rutland, Vermont, the Taconic Mountains show several prominent peaks with dramatic, irregular cliff faces clearly visible from U.S. Route 4 west of the city of Rutland; these include Herrick Mountain ; Grandpa's Knob , the former site of the Smith–Putnam wind turbine, the first large-scale electricity-producing

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

; and the

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

-like Bird Mountain (also called Birdseye Mountain) , home of the Bird Mountain Wildlife Management Area and notable as an important raptor migration path and nesting site. Also part of the Taconic Mountains are the foothills of the Lake Bomoseen region west of Birdseye and Grandpa's Knob, notable for their extensive slate quarrying operations. North of Grandpa's Knob, the Taconic Range soon diminishes into scattered hills which extend north into the

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

region. Isolated summits in this area include Snake Mountain , a Nature Conservancy preserve featuring a variety of rare and endangered species; and Mount Philo , home of Mount Philo State Park with its mountaintop campground.

History

Natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

extraction has been an important industry in the Taconic Mountains; extraction industries have included

, and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

mining as well as

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckscharcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

ing.''South Taconic Range: Trail Guide and Map.'' Berkshire Natural Resources Council (2002). Pittsfield, Massachusett
Also available online
; Retrieved December 27, 2008.

Conservation

Along with various state properties, some mentioned elsewhere in this article, the Berkshire Natural Resources Council and the Nature Conservancy have been active in the region. The U.S. Forest Service has designated several areas within the Taconics under its Forest Legacy Program, which affords subsidies for the acquisition of conservation easement, although practical effects have been limited.DCR Site Help
Mass.gov. Retrieved on 2014-04-12. Minor fragments of the Green Mountain National Forest are located in the Northern Taconics. Multi-partner collaboratives that have targeted the Taconic Mountains with limited results and include the New England Wildlands and Woodlands Collaborative, a regional conservation agenda for the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

states produced by representatives of dozens of non-profits and academic institutions and, more specifically, the Taconic Crest Project, which involves the states of New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont in collaboration with local land trusts and The Nature Conservancy.