Mount Nonotuck

Mount Nonotuck
View from Mount Nonotuck. From History of the Connecticut Valley, Massachusetts Vol 1 1879, by Louis Everts
Highest point
Elevation	827 ft (252 m)
Coordinates	42°16′48″N 72°37′13″W / 42.28000°N 72.62028°W / 42.28000; -72.62028Coordinates: 42°16′48″N 72°37′13″W / 42.28000°N 72.62028°W / 42.28000; -72.62028
Geography
Location	Holyoke, Massachusetts
Parent range	Mount Tom Range / Metacomet Ridge
Geology
Age of rock	200 Ma
Mountain type	fault-block igneous
Climbing
Easiest route	Auto road

Mount Nonotuck, 827 feet (252 m), is the northernmost peak of the Mount Tom Range of traprock mountains located in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts and part of the larger Metacomet Ridge which stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. Rugged and considered scenic, the peak rises steeply from the river valley 700 feet (210 m) below. It is located within the town of Holyoke.

The 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, maintained by the Berkshire Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, crosses Mt. Nonotuck, and a seasonal auto road (closed to vehicles indefinitely due to deteriorating conditions, hikers still welcome) climbs to a small parking lot just beneath the summit. During the winter, the auto road is often used for cross country skiing.

In 1861, following the success of the hotel on the summit of Mount Holyoke across the river, William Street opened a summit hotel on Mount Nonotuck and named it Eyrie House. The hotel was closer to the Connecticut River and therefore more accessible than the hotel on Mount Holyoke, which spurred the owners of the latter establishment to build a rail line and a ferry dock from the river to the base of Mount Holyoke. The hotel burned down in 1901 when Street attempted to cremate two horses on the mountain and lost control of the fire, leaving only the cellar holes and the walls of the stone understory standing. The hotel was subsequently included in the Mount Tom Reservation managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Connecticut River Oxbow (now a lake), immortalized by the famous landscape painter Thomas Cole just before natural flooding and erosion separated it from the Connecticut River, is visible from the ruins.