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59-616: Mount Tom State Reservation encompasses the Mount Tom Range and is located in the Connecticut River Valley region of Massachusetts , just north of the city of Springfield . The reservation is noted for its high cliffs, rugged scenery, and biological diversity. Recreational activities include hiking , picnicking , canoeing , fishing , cross-country skiing , snowshoeing , and ice skating . The 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail passes through

118-677: A Blackwood Article" (1838) and " Never Bet the Devil Your Head " (1841), the author ridicules transcendentalism, elsewhere calling its followers "Frogpondians" after the pond on Boston Common . The latter story specifically mentions the movement and its flagship journal The Dial , though Poe denied that he had any specific targets. Poe attacked the transcendentalist's writings by calling them "metaphor-run mad", lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or " mysticism for mysticism's sake". In Poe's essay " The Philosophy of Composition " (1846), he offers criticism denouncing "the excess of

177-789: A coherent movement and a sacred organization with the founding of the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts , on September 12, 1836, by prominent New England intellectuals, including George Putnam, Ralph Waldo Emerson , and Frederic Henry Hedge . Other members of the club included Sophia Ripley , Margaret Fuller , Elizabeth Peabody , Ellen Sturgis Hooper , Caroline Sturgis Tappan , Amos Bronson Alcott , Orestes Brownson , Theodore Parker , Henry David Thoreau , William Henry Channing , James Freeman Clarke , Christopher Pearse Cranch , Convers Francis , Sylvester Judd , Jones Very , and Charles Stearns Wheeler . From 1840,

236-495: A distinction made between individuality and individualism . Both advocate the unique capacity of the individual. Yet individualism is decidedly anti-government, whereas individuality sees all facets of society necessary, or at least acceptable for the development of the true individualistic person. Whether the Transcendentalists believed in individualism or individuality remains to be determined. While firmly rooted in

295-410: A large tract on the east side of the range that was once part of a downhill ski area that closed in 1998. An existing rock quarry, part of the property, was also secured. The efforts were spurred by public outcry following overtures by the former landowner to sell the land to a nearby rock and gravel operation for the expansion of the existing quarry. Other organizations invested in the conservation of

354-553: A priori categories as a priori knowledge . Early transcendentalists were largely unacquainted with German philosophy in the original and relied primarily on the writings of Thomas Carlyle , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Victor Cousin , Germaine de Staël , and other English and French commentators for their knowledge of it. The transcendental movement can be described as an American outgrowth of English Romanticism. Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—corrupt

413-475: A recreational and aesthetic resource. Hotels, parks, and summer estates were built on the mountains from the mid-1880s to the early 20th century. 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

472-505: 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 . Before the mid-19th century, very little history had been recorded about the Mount Tom Range to distinguish it from the surrounding landscape. Native Americans inhabited

531-530: A transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. Influenced by Emerson and the importance of nature, Charles Stearns Wheeler built a shanty at Flint's Pond in 1836. Considered the first Transcendentalist outdoor living experiment, Wheeler used his shanty during his summer vacations from Harvard from 1836 to 1842. Thoreau stayed at Wheeler's shanty for six weeks during

590-766: Is a charge to drive a vehicle into the Mount Tom State Reservation. Metacomet-Monadnock Trail parking is located off Route 141 on the gap between East Mountain and Mount Tom and also at the foot of Mount Nonotuck on Underwood Street in Easthampton where the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail descends from the ridge crest of the range. Much of the range has been conserved as part of Massachusett's Mount Tom State Reservation ; other parcels are managed by conservation non-profit organizations, including The Trustees of Reservations . In 2000,

649-421: Is a dark colored rock, but the iron within it weathers to a rusty brown when exposed to the air, lending the ledges a distinct reddish appearance. Basalt frequently breaks into octagonal and pentagonal columns, creating a unique "postpile" appearance. Huge slopes made of fractured basalt talus are visible beneath many of the ledges; they are particularly noticeable beneath Mount Tom, Whiting Peak, and Deadtop along

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708-674: Is also influenced by Hinduism . Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833), the founder of the Brahmo Samaj , rejected Hindu mythology, but also the Christian trinity. He found that Unitarianism came closest to true Christianity, and had a strong sympathy for the Unitarians, who were closely connected to the Transcendentalists. Ram Mohan Roy founded a missionary committee in Calcutta, and in 1828 asked for support for missionary activities from

767-540: Is closely related to Unitarianism , a religious movement in Boston in the early nineteenth century. It started to develop after Unitarianism took hold at Harvard University , following the elections of Henry Ware as the Hollis Professor of Divinity in 1805 and of John Thornton Kirkland as President in 1810. Transcendentalism was not a rejection of Unitarianism; rather, it developed as an organic consequence of

826-411: Is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual , people are at their best when truly " self-reliant " and independent. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities. Transcendentalism

885-633: Is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions. I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Brahmin , priest of Brahma , and Vishnu and Indra , who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas , or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water-jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in

944-469: Is one of the first philosophical currents that emerged in the United States; it is therefore a key early point in the history of American philosophy . Emphasizing subjective intuition over objective empiricism , its adherents believe that individuals are capable of generating completely original insights with little attention and deference to past transcendentalists. Its rise was a protest against

1003-535: Is separated from the Pocumtuck Ridge , 9 miles (14 km) away by a relatively low-lying area punctuated with occasional rises. The east side of the range drains into the Connecticut River thence to Long Island Sound; the west side drains into the Manhan River, thence to the Connecticut River. According to popular folklore, Mount Tom (the high point on the range) takes its name from Rowland Thomas ,

1062-525: Is to picture a layer cake tilted slightly up with some of the frosting (the sedimentary layer) removed in between. The Mount Tom Range hosts a combination of microclimates unusual in New England . Dry, hot upper ridges support oak savannas , often dominated by chestnut oak and a variety of understory grasses and ferns. Eastern red cedar , a dry-loving species, clings to the barren edges of cliffs. Backslope plant communities tend to be more similar to

1121-596: The Holyoke Street Railway Company began constructing what would become known as "Mountain Park", a trolley park and later an amusement park on the east side of the range. The project changed hands several times until its closure in 1988 when competition from larger amusement parks gradually sapped business away what had become affectionately known by locals as "The Queen of the Mountain." Both

1180-508: The 19th century, including Moncure Conway , Octavius Brooks Frothingham , Samuel Longfellow and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn . The transcendence of the spirit, most often evoked by the poet's prosaic voice, is said to endow in the reader a sense of purpose. This is the underlying theme in the majority of transcendentalist essays and papers—all of which are centered on subjects which assert a love for individual expression. The group

1239-745: The American Unitarians. By 1829, Roy had abandoned the Unitarian Committee, but after Roy's death, the Brahmo Samaj kept close ties to the Unitarian Church, who strove towards a rational faith, social reform, and the joining of these two in a renewed religion. Its theology was called " neo-Vedanta " by Christian commentators, and has been highly influential in the modern popular understanding of Hinduism, but also of modern western spirituality, which re-imported

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1298-756: The Appalachian Mountain Club. The range is used for picnicking , hiking , and snowshoeing . Bicycling and cross-country skiing are enjoyed on the park roads. The ridge once hosted the Mount Tom Ski Area , now closed; the trails are still used for backcountry skiing , although there are no lifts in operation. Recently, as paragliding becomes an increasingly popular sport in the US, the Mt.Tom's western face serves as launch for flights as far as Worcester area. There are no camping facilities on

1357-663: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts of the Connecticut River Greenway State Park , and the recent proposal by the National Park Service for the inclusion of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in a new National Scenic Trail. The ridge of the Mount Tom Range was formed 200 million years ago during the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods and is composed of traprock, also known as basalt , an extrusive volcanic rock. Basalt

1416-530: The Connecticut River from sketches he made from the summit of Mount Holyoke), the work of landscape architects such as Frederick Law Olmsted , and the writings of philosophers like Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson . This philosophical, artistic, and environmental movement transformed many areas of the Metacomet Ridge (as well as other places in New England) from a commercial resource to

1475-536: The Holyoke Range and the Mount Tom Range were part of a 1966 proposal by the National Park Service for a "Connecticut River National Recreation Area." Although the project was never realized, it has been followed through in spirit by a number of similar local and national conservation efforts, including an increased effort to acquire land on both ranges for state park expansion, the creation by

1534-665: The Lakes , Margaret Fuller noted that "the noble trees are gone already from this island to feed this caldron", and in 1854, in Walden, Thoreau regarded the trains being built across America's landscape as a "winged horse or fiery dragon" that "sprinkle[d] all the restless men and floating merchandise in the country for seed". Transcendentalism is, in many aspects, the first notable American intellectual movement. It has inspired succeeding generations of American intellectuals, as well as some literary movements. Transcendentalism influenced

1593-656: The Metacomet Ridge may have remained more or less forested (cleared only intermittently) throughout New England's agricultural period, thereby allowing the area to retain its biologic diversity through the 20th century. Increasing urbanization and industrialization in 19th century New England resulted in an opposing aesthetic transcendentalist movement characterized by the paintings of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters such as Frederic Edwin Church and Thomas Cole (who, in 1836, famously painted

1652-579: The Mount Tom Range and its viewshed include The Kestrel Trust , The Valley Land Fund , and the Pascommuck Conservation Trust. Transcendentalism Antiquity Medieval Early modern Modern Iran India East-Asia Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States . A core belief

1711-885: The Mount Tom Range was included in a study by the National Park Service for the designation of a new National Scenic Trail now tentatively called the New England National Scenic Trail , which would include the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail in Massachusetts and the Mattabesett Trail and Metacomet Trail trails in Connecticut. In 2002, several conservation non-profit organizations and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts collaborated to successfully preserve

1770-453: The Mount Tom State Reservation park road, or along Metacomet-Monadnock Trail on the summit crest gazing down. The basalt ridges are the product of several massive lava flows hundreds of feet deep that welled up in faults created by the rifting apart of North America from Eurasia and Africa. These basalt floods of lava happened over a period of 20 million years. Erosion occurring between the eruptions deposited deep layers of sediment between

1829-484: The Unitarian emphasis on free conscience and the value of intellectual reason. The transcendentalists were not content with the sobriety , mildness, and calm rationalism of Unitarianism. Instead, they wanted a more intense spiritual experience. Thus, transcendentalism was not born as a counter-movement to Unitarianism, but as a parallel movement to the very ideas introduced by the Unitarians. Transcendentalism became

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1888-698: The Unitarian influences in the disguise of the seemingly age-old Neo-Vedanta . Major figures in the transcendentalist movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau , Margaret Fuller , and Amos Bronson Alcott . Some other prominent transcendentalists included Louisa May Alcott , Charles Timothy Brooks , Orestes Brownson , William Ellery Channing , William Henry Channing , James Freeman Clarke , Christopher Pearse Cranch , John Sullivan Dwight , Convers Francis , William Henry Furness , Frederic Henry Hedge , Sylvester Judd , Theodore Parker , Elizabeth Palmer Peabody , George Ripley , Thomas Treadwell Stone , Jones Very , and Walt Whitman . Early in

1947-401: The adjacent Berkshire plateau containing species common to the northern hardwood and oak-hickory forest forest types. Eastern hemlock crowds narrow ravines, blocking sunlight and creating damp, cooler growing conditions with associated cooler climate plant species. Talus slopes are especially rich in nutrients and support a number of calcium-loving plants uncommon in Massachusetts. Because

2006-462: The area around the Mount Tom Range for at least 10,000 years; they grew maize , tobacco , beans , squash and other vegetables in the Connecticut River floodplain, clearing small sections of forest by burning to make room for their crops. They hunted and fished in the area, and made tools and arrowheads from the basalt rock of the Metacomet Ridge. Tensions between the local Pocumtuc Native American tribe and colonial settlers, who began arriving in

2065-590: The empiricism of science. Transcendentalists desire to ground their religion and philosophy in principles based upon the German Romanticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher . Transcendentalism merged " English and German Romanticism , the Biblical criticism of Herder and Schleiermacher, the skepticism of Hume ", and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant (and of German idealism more generally), interpreting Kant's

2124-418: The extraction of coal in the mid-Appalachians . Highland areas were also burned of timber when lowland fires, set to clear land for farms, raged out of control. However, by the early 20th century, after agricultural interests shifted west and charcoaling became unprofitable, rural New England became largely forested again. A 2004 ecological resource study conducted for the National Park Service suggests that

2183-643: The general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time. The doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School was closely related. Transcendentalism emerged from "English and German Romanticism , the Biblical criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher , the skepticism of David Hume ", and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and German idealism . Perry Miller and Arthur Versluis regard Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Böhme as pervasive influences on transcendentalism. Transcendentalism

2242-461: The group frequently published in their journal The Dial , along with other venues. By the late 1840s, Emerson believed that the movement was dying out, and even more so after the death of Margaret Fuller in 1850. "All that can be said", Emerson wrote, "is that she represents an interesting hour and group in American cultivation." There was, however, a second wave of transcendentalists later in

2301-543: The growing movement of "Mental Sciences" of the mid-19th century, which would later become known as the New Thought movement. New Thought considers Emerson its intellectual father. Emma Curtis Hopkins ("the teacher of teachers"), Ernest Holmes (founder of Religious Science ), Charles and Myrtle Fillmore (founders of Unity ), and Malinda Cramer and Nona L. Brooks (founders of Divine Science ) were all greatly influenced by Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism

2360-464: 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. Another hotel, the Mount Tom Hotel,

2419-474: The introduction of the American Scholar address, "that there is One Man, – present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to find the whole man". Such an ideal is in harmony with Transcendentalist individualism, as each person is empowered to behold within him or herself a piece of the divine Over-Soul. In recent years, there has been

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2478-483: The land had been cleared of trees to make room for farms. Farmers were particularly attracted to the rich soils of the region—one of the few places in New England where tobacco can grown with commercial success. Rugged highlands, such as the Holyoke Range and Mount Tom Range, although unsuitable for farming, were often harvested of timber to produce charcoal , a primary source of fuel for the steel industry prior to

2537-418: The latter. In his 1842 lecture " The Transcendentalist ", he suggested that the goal of a purely transcendental outlook on life was impossible to attain in practice: You will see by this sketch that there is no such thing as a transcendental party ; that there is no pure transcendentalist; that we know of no one but prophets and heralds of such a philosophy; that all who by strong bias of nature have leaned to

2596-422: The lava flows, which eventually lithified into sedimentary rock . The resulting "layer cake" of basalt and sedimentary sheets eventually faulted and tilted upward. Subsequent erosion wore away the weaker sedimentary layers faster than the basalt layers, leaving the abruptly tilted edges of the basalt sheets exposed, creating the distinct linear ridge and dramatic cliff faces visible today. One way to imagine this

2655-427: The movement's history, the term "transcendentalists" was used as a pejorative term by critics, who were suggesting their position was beyond sanity and reason. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a novel, The Blithedale Romance (1852), satirizing the movement, and based it on his experiences at Brook Farm , a short-lived utopian community founded on transcendental principles. In Edgar Allan Poe's satires "How to Write

2714-472: The purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly self-reliant and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community can form. Even with this necessary individuality, transcendentalists also believe that all people are outlets for the " Over-Soul ". Because the Over-Soul is one, this unites all people as one being. Emerson alludes to this concept in

2773-530: The range. A number of trail head parking lots are located within the Mount Tom State Reservation, accessible from Route 5 in Holyoke and East Street in Easthampton; only the eastmost lot is open off season. Parking lot access is available off Route 5 and at the south side of Whiting Street Reservoir, as well as off Route 141 in Holyoke by the Log Cabin Restaurant. During on-season months there

2832-505: The region in the mid-17th century, reached a head in 1675 with the outbreak of King Philip's War , a conflict involving colonists and a confederacy of Native American tribes across southern New England under the leadership of the sachem Metacomet . More settlers arrived after of the war ended with the defeat of the Native Americans, and by the early 19th century, most of the region's current towns had been established and most of

2891-493: The reservation as do several low-profile seasonal auto roads. The reservation is also a popular place to observe seasonal raptor migrations. Mount Tom Range The Mount Tom Range rises steeply between 500 and 1,100 feet (150 and 340 m) above the Connecticut River Valley below; it is roughly 4.5 miles (7 km) long by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide at its widest point, although the ruggedness of

2950-773: The same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges. In 1844, the first English translation of the Lotus Sutra was included in The Dial , a publication of the New England Transcendentalists, translated from French by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody . Transcendentalists differ in their interpretations of the practical aims of will. Some adherents link it with utopian social change; Brownson , for example, connected it with early socialism , but others consider it an exclusively individualist and idealist project. Emerson believed

3009-461: The spiritual side in doctrine, have stopped short of their goal. We have had many harbingers and forerunners; but of a purely spiritual life, history has afforded no example. I mean, we have yet no man who has leaned entirely on his character, and eaten angels' food; who, trusting to his sentiments, found life made of miracles; who, working for universal aims, found himself fed, he knew not how; clothed, sheltered, and weaponed, he knew not how, and yet it

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3068-585: The structured inner workings of the natural world. Emerson emphasizes the Transcendental beliefs in the holistic power of the natural landscape in Nature : In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, – no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, – my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, – all mean egotism vanishes. I become

3127-629: The summer of 1837, and got the idea that he wanted to build his own cabin (later realized at Walden in 1845). The exact location of the Wheeler shanty site was discovered by Jeff Craig in 2018, after a five-year search effort. The conservation of an undisturbed natural world is also extremely important to the Transcendentalists. The idealism that is a core belief of Transcendentalism results in an inherent skepticism of capitalism , westward expansion , and industrialization . As early as 1843, in Summer on

3186-547: The terrain makes the actual area much larger. The entire range is sometimes referred to as "Mount Tom". Oriented from south to north, the range is located within the towns of Easthampton and Holyoke . The Metacomet Ridge continues south from the Mount Tom Range as East Mountain and east across the Connecticut River as the Holyoke Range . The Metacomet Ridge is broken to the north; the Mount Tom Range

3245-488: The traprock ridges generate such varied terrain, they are the home of several plant and animal species that are state-listed or globally rare. The Mount Tom Range is also an important seasonal raptor migration path. A low-profile network of seasonal auto roads and many miles of trails climb the ridgeline, including the 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail maintained by the Berkshire Chapter of

3304-651: The western philosophical traditions of Platonism , Neoplatonism , and German idealism , Transcendentalism was also directly influenced by Indian religions . Thoreau in Walden spoke of the Transcendentalists' debt to Indian religions directly: In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta , since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy

3363-504: Was constructed on the summit of Mount Tom in 1897, but it burned down three years later. Subsequently, rebuilt, it burned again in 1929 and was never rebuilt; in 1902 the property became the first parcel to become the Mount Tom State Reservation. In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps assisted with the construction of reservation structures and park roads still existent through the turn of the 21st century. In 1897

3422-464: Was done by his own hands. ... Shall we say, then, that transcendentalism is the Saturnalia or excess of Faith; the presentiment of a faith proper to man in his integrity, excessive only when his imperfect obedience hinders the satisfaction of his wish. Transcendentalists have a deep gratitude and appreciation for nature, not only for aesthetic purposes, but also as a tool to observe and understand

3481-485: Was mostly made up of struggling aesthetes , the wealthiest among them being Samuel Gray Ward , who, after a few contributions to The Dial , focused on his banking career. Transcendentalists are strong believers in the power of the individual and are primarily concerned with personal freedom . Their beliefs are closely linked with those of the Romantics , but differ by an attempt to embrace or, at least, to not oppose

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