The Amherst College Museum of Natural History (formerly the Pratt Museum) contains three floors of exhibits and over 1700 individual specimens. There are a variety of displays on vertebrate evolution and extinction, geology of the Connecticut River Valley, and the world’s largest collection of dinosaur tracks, many from…
Category Archives: Hampshire County
The Hitchcock Center
The Hitchcock Center for the Environment, located in Amherst, MA, offers natural history programs for both children and adults, as well as a resource center. Located in the Larch Hill conservation area, the trails and butterfly garden are open to the public during daytime hours.
Easthampton, MA
Easthampton, originally part of Northampton, was settled in 1664. It became a separate village in 1785, a town in 1809, and a city in 1996, switching from a town council form of government to a mayor. Michael Tauznik was elected the first…
Smith College Museum of Art
With a world famous collection and a tradition of making its holdings accessible to the public, the Smith College Museum of Art has long been an asset to the city of Northampton. The permanent collection includes more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures…
Living in Easthampton, MA
I bought my home in Easthampton in 1997. At the time, most of my bookkeeping clients were in Northampton and since I really don’t like to drive I wanted to stay close, but housing prices in Northampton and Florence were out of my reach…
Chesterfield Gorge and the East Branch Trail
My dog, Maddy, and I visited these trails on Thursday January 15 in the midafternoon. It had been a few days since the last snowstorm, but there were still almost two feet of snow on the ground.
The Chesterfield Gorge is owned by the Trustees of Reservations. Most hikes…
1946 Airplane Crash on Mount Tom
In July, 1946 a Flying Fortress B-17 bomber crashed into Mount Tom, killing all 25 passengers and crew returning home to Westfield Airforce Base.
The crash happened at about 10:20 at night. The impact was witnessed by many of the thousands of people attending events at the Mountain Park Amusement Area…
Easthampton to Northampton Bicycle Commuting, 2008
It was my pleasure to bicycle commute from Easthampton to Northampton once or twice a week during the summer of 2008. I tried a few different routes before settling on one that skirted the edge of the Acadia Wildlife Sanctuary and the Oxbow. On several evenings I was…
Mount Tom State Reservation
Mt. Tom boasts an unparalleled view of the Connecticut Valley north and south, the Berkshire mountains to the west and the Pelham hills to the east. This 2,082 acre facility offers 20 miles of hiking and walking trail…
Cummington, MA
Cummington is a small rural community in the Hilltowns region of Western Massachusetts. The town hosts the Hillside Agricultural Society’s Cummington Fair and the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair each year…