Yokun Ridge consisting mainly of West Stockbridge Mountain and the Lenox Mountain massif, is a ten-mile stretch of the Taconic Mountains south of Pittfield, Mass. The term was invented in 1971 by a conservation group to draw attention to a perceived geographical continuity. The name was accepted in 2009 by the United States Board on Geographic Names. The area is notable for its recreational and scenic value, as well as its conserved land and proximity to the tourist attractions of Lenox and Stockbridge. Yokun Ridge is in West Stockbridge, Stockbridge, Lenox, Richmond, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Approximately one-third of the zone is protected as open space reserve, municipal watershed, and wildlife sanctuary.
Geography
Yokun Ridge is an actual "ridge" in places, yet in others a more amorphous upland, hosting a couple of small municipal reservoirs (at an elevation of about 1,400 feet) for nearby Lenox. It includes from south to north, West Stockbridge Mountain and the various summits of Lenox Mountain , Yokun Seat , The Damp , and Mahanna Cobble . Subordinate peaks include Baldhead (now wooded at its summit), Osceola Mountain , and The Cobble . (Surrounding lowlands average around 800-900 feet)
Water bodies on Yokun Ridge include Lake Averic, Fairfield Pond, the two Lenox Reservoirs, also the very small Shadowbrook Reservoir (sometimes called Monks Pond locally), and Darey Pond, plus various small brooks, ponds, and wetlands. A waterfall on the west side of Lenox Mountain in Stevens Glen. The southwest side of the ridge drains into Cone Brook, thence into the Williams River, the Housatonic River, and Long Island Sound; the southeast side drains into Marsh Brook, Stockbridge Bowl, and Larrywaug Brook, thence into the Housatonic River; the northwest side drains into Richmond Pond and Southwest Branch Brook, thence the Housatonic River; and the northeast side drains into Yokun Brook, thence into the Housatonic River.
The Massachusetts Turnpike passes the south end of West Stockbridge Mountain, while at the opposite, northern end of Yokun Ridge is Bousquet Ski Area in Pittsfield.
Geology
West Stockbridge Mountain and the several Lenox Mountain summits are mostly part of the allochthonous Everett Formation, described as "largely greenish-gray, or dark-grey quartzose schist." Fine-grained mica in the matrix gives the rock a "phyllitic sheen." The formation may have been originally deposited to the east and then thrust into its present position, riding over the separate Stockbridge and Wallomsac formations.
Nomenclature
The name Yokun derives from Jehoiakim Yokun, a mid-18th century Native American of the Mahican tribe. As early as the 19th century, Yokun's name was applied to "Yokun Seat," a summit of Lenox Mountain and accepted by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in 1894.
George Wislocki, first director of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, invented the name "Yokun Ridge" 1971. In coining his new term, Wislocki hoped to draw attention to perceived continuity of highlands to the west of Lenox and north-western Stockbridge.
"Yokun Ridge" was accepted by the Board on Geographic Names in 2009. Apparently in error, the board cited as a first reference for this term a 1939 WPA regional guidebook titled "The Berkshire Hills." However, the term "Yokun Ridge" doesn't appear in the WPA work, which cites instead the historical figure Yokun in several contexts including as a source for the name of Lenox Mountain's "Yokun Seat" summit as well as for the obsolete appellation "Yokuntown" for the town of Lenox.
The Appalachian Mountain Club employs "Yokun Ridge" in the 2004 and 2009 edition of its Massachusetts Trail Guide. The Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Town of Lenox, and the Bousquet Ski Area have also used the term.
History
Although Yokun Ridge only emerged as a geographical concept in 1971, in the 1740s, Jehoiakim Yokun and another Native American of the Mahican Tribe bought all the unsold land between Stockbridge and Pittsfield for 12 English pounds from two fellow tribesmen. The land was subsequently acquired by the English in the 1750s. The Dutch name "Jehoiakim" may indicate that Jehoiakim Yokun was baptized by the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, a region where most Mahicans resided at the time. Yokun subsequently was active in the French and Indian Wars while later his son, Timothy, participated in the American Revolution as a member of the Stockbridge Militia at the Siege of Boston and died in a battle in the vicinity of present-day Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y. "Yokuntown" (a designation for the village of Lenox in the 18th century) was named after Yokun.