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The Mohawk Trail

Page history last edited by John Keenan 1 month ago Saved with comment

 

The Mohawk Trail

 

is named for a passageway used by Native Americans in the Connecticut River Valley region of modern-day western Massachusetts to trade with and travel to tribes in upstate New York.

 

This passageway was likely traveled not by people from the Mohawk tribes, but Mohican peoples.

 

Mohican-Mohawk Trail

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is developing the Mohican-Mohawk Trail to more accurately follow the corridor of the historic Native American path along the Deerfield River.

 

The Mohawk Trail Route 2 Highway

 

The Mohawk Trail was a made-up name designed to promote automobile travel and tourism along Route 2 in Massachusetts.

 

It followed the Millers and Deerfield Rivers and crossed the Hoosac Range in northwestern Massachusetts, beginning in Williamstown, Massachusetts near the New York State border and going some 67 miles to the town of Orange located east of the Connecticut River.

 

The Mohawk Trail on Route 2 was one of the most heavily traveled roads in the 1960's. It became a national scenic byway in 2020. It was designed a scenic highway by the Massachusetts legislature in 1914.

 


 

File:Hair Pin Turn, Mohawk Trail, Mass (3627).jpg

Historical Overview

 

 The History and Significance of the Mohawk Trail

 

Source Summary: Video discussing how the Mohawk trail when used by the Native Americans extended from Williamstown to Orange Massachusetts, and was likely used by natives from the Mohican tribe. Then in 1912 the town North Adams requested from the state an improved highway. Upon completion of the road improvements towns along the route played into the history of the trail in an attempt to drum up tourist travel. The video also touches on how the routes rise was possible due to the increasing ownership of automobiles.  

 

 Read about the Mohican Native Americans.

 

Source Summary: Discusses the history of the Mohican tribe whose tribe name means "the people of the waters that are never still," and provides a general overview of how they lost their ancestral land due to wars with the Mohawk tribe and by selling territory to European colonists.

 

 

 Timeline of the Mohawk Trail

 

Source Summary: Timeline that includes prominent events and business openings that relate to the trail with a major focus on nonnative history.

 

Font Awesome 5 solid assistive-listening-systems.svgThe Forgotten History of the Mohawk Trail (Connecticut Public Radio)

 

Source Summary: Radio NPR interview that discusses how the Mohican Tribe has been removed from the historical memory of the area, and efforts that are currently being taken in conjunction with the Mohican tribe to provide representation to the people who actually lived there. 

 

 The History of The Mohawk Trail (The Eastwick Press)

 

Source Summary: Discusses how an opening celebration in 1914 for the opening of the route featured a pageant, and reenactments wherein White males dressed up as Native Americans, and goes on to discuss how the end of the frontier declared in 1890 caused many to have an increased fascination with the settler culture of their local region. The article also discusses how the naming of the trail had little input from native communities, and was decided largely by the white townspeople along the route.

 


 

 Primary & Secondary Sources

 

Read a detailed history of the trail and its notable features.

Source Summary: The trail was originally a walkable highway used by Native American Tribes to traverse across modern day western Massachusetts. Prominently in 1676 the Indian Chief Metacom (King Philip) traversed the trail trying to recruit Mohawks warriors during his war against the Massachusetts settlers. The trail was also used in multiple other conflicts including the French and Indian war, and the American Revolution. Following the decline of farming in the early 1900s the trail became the route that was chosen to link the communities of western MA as the state built its modern road network.  

 

The Mohawk Trail: Its History and Course

Source Summary: Written by William B. Browne and published in 1920, this source provides an overview of the trail, its history, its contribution to Fort Massachusetts (a western boundary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay), its evolution as a road, and several older images of its landscape.

 

TOURING THE MOHAWK TRAIL

Source Summary: A digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, this source was published on June 13, 1982. Author Ellen Perley Frank of Greenfield, Massachusetts writes of the many sites and tourist attractions found on the Mohawk Trail, including places to stay along the way, museums, theaters, parks, and gift shops.

 

The Mohawk Trail 

Source Summary: This television program from the 1960s takes viewers through the Mohawk Trail and some of its key landmarks. The host spends time on Poets Seat Tower, Williams College, the site of the Battle of Oriskany (August 6, 1777), and Fort Ontario.

 


 

THE TRAIL & ITS GEOGRAPHY:

 

 

 

 

  • The Mohawk Trail leads from the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys in New York to the Deerfield and Connecticut River Valleys in Massachusetts.

 

  • It is currently considered a part of Route 2 and 2A.

 

  • The trail is an estimated sixty miles long!

 

Mohawk Trail | Western Massachusetts Scenic Byways (bywayswestmass.com)

 

Source Summary: Interactive map of popular stops along the route 

 


HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK TRAIL:

 

  • "The Mohawk Trail Scenic Byway follows the east-west route used for approximately 10,000 to 12,000 years by the Native Americans to hunt, trade, and conduct war campaigns between the Hudson River and Connecticut River Valleys"

 

  • The trail was originally a path pioneered by the Indigenous peoples of Massachusetts for the purposes of travel and trade.  
    • The trail today is considered a scenic tourist route. Predictably, it is no longer used for trade.

 

  • Fishing along the trail used to be popular along Native tribes. There was an annual spring salmon run up the Connecticut River that intersected with the trail!

 

  • In 1673, the trail was used to transfer mail between Boston to New York.  At this point, the Mohawk Trail developed another name: the

           "Post Road."

 

  • The Mohawk Trail was ultimately converted to an ox road by British settlers and became the first interstate toll-free road, called Shunpike, in 1786.

 

The Big Indian Statute

 

The Big Indian statute was 20 feet tall, made of plexiglass, and was created by a Rodman Shutt, a Pennsylvania craftsman who also created other large-scale native-themed monuments as roadside attractions during the 1960s.

 

In late summer 2023, after nearly 50 years, the statute was moved from its location in Charlemont, Massachusetts to Vinita, Oklahoma on Route 66.

 

Petition from Change.org to remove the statute.

 

 

 

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