Monument Mountain (reservation)
| Monument Mountain | |
| Open Space Preserve | |
 View looking South East from the Devils Pulpit on Monument Mountain near Great Barrington, MA.
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| Country | United States |
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| State | Massachusetts |
| Location | Great Barrington, Massachusetts |
| - elevation | 500.5 m (1,642 ft) |
| - coordinates | 42°14′50.4″N 73°20′26.6″W / 42.247333°N 73.340722°WCoordinates: 42°14′50.4″N 73°20′26.6″W / 42.247333°N 73.340722°W |
| Biome | Mountain ridge, talus slopes, upland forests |
| Geology | The Berkshires; quartzite, metamorphic rock |
| Plant | Red oak, Eastern black oak, sugar maple, Eastern hemlock, Eastern white pine, red pine, mountain laurel, black birch |
| Founded | 1899 |
| Management | The Trustees of Reservations |
| Area | 503 acres (204 ha) |
| Website: Monument Mountain | |
Monument Mountain is the name of a popular 503-acre (204 ha) open space reservation located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on the southeast side of Monument Mountain. The reservation is centered on the 1,642 feet (500 m) subordinate summit of Squaw Peak. It is managed by The Trustees of Reservations, a non-profit conservation organization and is notable for its expansive views of the Housatonic River Valley, The Berkshires, the Taconic Mountains, and the Catskill Mountains of New York from the knife-edge summit of Squaw Peak. Monument Mountain, composed of erosion resistant quartzite, is of The Berkshires geology. The reservation receives over 20,000 visitors a year.
Monument Mountain has been the subject of art and literature since as early as 1815 when the poet William Cullen Bryant penned "Monument Mountain," an account of the story of a Mohican woman who allegedly leapt from what is now called Squaw Peak. In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville picnicked on the mountain; a thunderstorm forced them to seek cover in a boulder cave where they engaged in a lengthy discussion which inspired some of Melville's ideas for his novel Moby Dick.
In the 1930s, red pines were planted on the reservation; by that time much of the mountain had been heavily logged for the charcoal industry in support of iron foundries in Falls Village, Connecticut and Lenox, Massachusetts.
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