Mount Tom

My mountain.



Even as a small boy I was aware that there was a local mountain bearing my name. I didn't know how it related to me, or to any Tom, but I had a neighborhood Indian friend when I was at Duggan Junior High School who claimed to know what the name meant. This kid, who never wore a shirt out of school, also wore beads around his neck. I once heard he ran around Snake Woods in a loincloth, but I had not actually seen this. All of it seemed very Indian-like except for one thing - my friend had bright red hair. Somehow red hair did not go well with claims of Indian ancestry.

Anyway, this friend told me that the mountain's name had nothing to do with the Christian name Thomas, but was simply what the Indian's called it in their language and the white folk had adopted it from them. It sounded convincing. I mean the white folk must have been real anxious to adopt Indian names if they were calling places things like Agawam and Chicopee. Why not go all out and take the Indian name for the mountain as well?

Well, that may be a plausible story, but it is as authentic as an Indian with red hair. According to the Wikipedia, this is the real story:

According to popular folklore, Mount Tom takes its name from Rowland Thomas, a surveyor who worked for the settlement of Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1660s. Thomas supposedly named Mount Tom after himself while his fellow surveyor working on the opposite side of the Connecticut River, Elizur Holyoke, gave his name to Mount Holyoke.

In fact Mount Tom is in no way unique. There are 41 other elevated places in America bearing that name. All of the New England states have a Mount Tom, with the exception of Maine. Here are some other interesting facts about Mount Tom from the Wikipedia:

Mount Tom, 1,202 feet (363 m), is a steep, rugged traprock mountain peak on the west bank of the Connecticut River 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of downtown Holyoke, Massachusetts. The mountain is the southernmost and highest peak of the Mount Tom Range and the highest traprock peak of the 100 mi (161 km) long Metacomet Ridge. A popular outdoor recreation resource, the mountain is known for its continuous line of cliffs and talus slopes visible from the south and west, its dramatic 1,100 feet (335 m) rise over the surrounding Connecticut River Valley, and its rare plant communities and microclimate ecosystems.

Located in Easthampton and Holyoke, Mount Tom is traversed by the 110 mi (177 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and is the transmitter location for three Springfield - Holyoke television stations: WGBY, WGGB, and WSHM-LP, and for radio stations WHYN-FM and WVEI-FM. The name "Mount Tom" is sometimes used to describe the entire Mount Tom Range.

So now you know.

Here is a picture of me taken in 1988 when I was working as a librarian at the Western New England Law School Library. Notice the image of Mickey Mouse doing the Grateful Dead twirl on the side of my desk. Also notice how in that primitive era desks still had typewriters!



Poverty may someday drive me to it, but I hope I will never be a librarian again. I mean the gay librarian - how embarrassingly stereotypical!

Ghostland of Mountain Park 2007

Exploring the ruins of Mountain Park.

 



Last Wednesday Jeff Ziff and I went to the site of the former Mountain Park in Holyoke. Untold thousands of people have memories of that place, which opened in 1894 and closed in 1990. Anything of value was then sold off, while what remains has fallen prey to vandals and arson. Jeff and I decided to go up there, nearly twenty years after its last season, and see what's left. There's still this big sign, faded almost beyond reading, along with No Trespassing signs in great abundance. 

Of course such signs are no barrier to a citizen journalist such as myself, and I soon found a hole in the fence. 

As you can well imagine, after twenty years the site is greatly overgrown. However old walls still rise amidst the dense foliage.

 



Rubble lies everywhere, but the fading hues of many of the stones reveal the last remnants of a colorful past. 

There is evidence everywhere that the site has become an outdoor party place, with these drug ravers claiming full ownership.

My only objection is that I've never been invited. Suddenly, amidst all this real wilderness, we are surprised to discover some artificial turf!

Exploring furthur we discover an old structure that reveals to us that we have stumbled upon the ruins, complete with the old stone sign, of the miniature golf course!

The entire ruin is covered in colorful graffiti, including this giant letter A, the universal symbol of anarchy. Indeed, the forces of chaos and destruction now rule this park.

From there we decide to venture deeper into the woods, to see what might be discovered. Jeff comes across the scattered remnants of an old sign - and makes a surprisingly personal discovery - a fragment of the Snow Cones sign!

For decades Jeff's family ran the former Cray's Soda Company in Holyoke, and as a young man Jeff used to deliver the syrup to Mountain Park to make the snow cones. What a weird thing to happen, for him to discover the rotting ruins of the snow cone sign amidst the forest now reclaiming the park.

Exploring further, we came across these strange growths on the hollow of a fallen tree. I don't recall ever seeing such a bright yellow mold before! 

They were such a bright yellow, they were almost flourescent. The drug LSD is a kind of mold; could these also have psychedelic properties?

They might, then again they could also be poisonous. Perhaps they are spores left by aliens! We decide it is better to leave them alone.

Soon we came to a clearing. A big clearing! To our amazement we discover that we have wandered onto the site of the Mount Tom Resevoir!

We realize we are not alone as runners from Smith College pass by.

 



We walked towards an old brick pump house.

The pump house is covered with gang signs, including the markings of dope and death. 

Jeff takes pictures of the antennae atop Mount Tom, and we wonder whether we are violating some kind of homeland security rule by doing so. What paranoid times we live in!

We decide I should pose on a stone block in front of my namesake Mount Buttcrack - I mean Mount Tom!

It's a posed picture, but not an insincere one. On a certain level I really do worship the mighty mountains that enfold and protect our Valley.

 



Unfortunately, we then realize that we have run out of time, although there are no doubt plenty of ruins to be found in the forest. However, these must comprise the adventures of another day.

Finally, Wednesday was also the day of the fundraiser for Springfield's Karen Powell at Tony's Pizza in Pine Point. Instead of going I was running around half naked in an abandoned amusement park. To make amends, I have stolen this photo from activist Bill Dusty of (l to R) Councilor Tim Rooke, Powell and hubby Bob. I urge you to give them money and votes, even Bob, who should also be a candidate.