Pocumtuck Range

Pocumtuck Range
Metacomet Ridge
Poet's Seat Tower on Rocky Mountain, northern Pocumtuck Range. 1915 postcard.
Highest point
Peak	Pocumtuck Rock
Elevation	846 ft (258 m)
Dimensions
Length	11 mi (18 km) east-west
Geography
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
Geology
Age of rock	Triassic/Jurassic
Type of rock	fault-block and igneous, sedimentary

The Pocumtuck Range, also referred to as the Pocumtuck Ridge, is the northernmost subrange of the Metacomet Ridge mountain range of southern New England. Located in Franklin County, Massachusetts, between the Connecticut River and the Deerfield River valleys, the Pocumtuck Range is a popular hiking destination known for its continuous high cliffs, scenic vistas, and microclimate ecosystems.

The range, 11 miles (18 km) long by 1.75 miles (2.8 km) wide at its widest point, includes, from south to north, Sugarloaf Mountain of Deerfield; a central high ridge most often called Pocumtuck Ridge; and Rocky Mountain (sometimes called Greenfield Ridge) of Greenfield. Notable peaks include, from south to north:

The Deerfield River cuts between Rocky Mountain and Pocumtuck Ridge just before merging with the Connecticut River.

The Pocumtuck Range is located entirely in Deerfield and Greenfield. The Metacomet Ridge, of which it is a part, continues north as a series of low sedimentary hills and dwindling trap rock outcrops to just two miles south of the Vermont and New Hampshire borders in Northfield, Massachusetts. South of Sugarloaf Mountain, the Metacomet Ridge virtually disappears into low, scattered rises and flat plains of sedimentary rock before ascending again as the prominent trap rock Holyoke and Mount Tom Ranges nine miles south.

Pocumtuck (Pocumtuc) was the name of a now extinct tribe of Native Americans who lived in the area prior to 1800. According to stories ascribed to the tribe, Pocumtuck Ridge and Sugarloaf Mountain were the remains of a giant beaver killed by the giant spirit Hobomock (the same spirit who diverted the course of the Connecticut River in central Connecticut and was cursed to sleep forever as the Sleeping Giant mountain formation). The Pocumtucks allegedly believed that the beaver lived in an enormous lake that once occupied the Connecticut River Valley: