Visiting the Berkshires
I expected western Massachusetts to be hardly developed and without much history. Surprisingly there are several nice small cities here; some that have existed for centuries. In regards to history, the small town of Barrington had a pretty bold claim to make! A sign by their town hall claims they were the first to ever publicly oppose British rule on August 16th 1774. If true that would make residents of Barrington the first true Americans! The photo below shows the city center of Barrington. Despite being small and in the middle of no where, Barrington was pretty lively and had a lot of people out and about!
Keeping in line with its British heritage, just outside Barrington is even a large castle. I tried to enter it out of curiosity, but some signs made it pretty obvious I wasn’t allowed on the property. I later found out this is called Searles Castle,
and was built in the 1880’s Originally it was owned by an extremely weather family, but since the 1980’s it’s home of an academy for talented students at a cost of nearly $100,000 per year!
Also in the Barringotn area I saw this government sign that got my attention. I only took the photo since I’ve never heard any American use the word ‘rubbish’ before; only in places like the United Kingdom or Australia. Since the sign is an official state sign I’m guessing that people in this area of Massachusetts still use some British vocabulary.
These two photos above and below show some from a lake I visited during the fall time. I took lots of photos of the changing leaves but never took anything home I was proud of!
Lastly, hiking out in the Berkshires is also a great place to see some natural beauty and even spot wildlife. I did a short hike on one of the trails, but didn’t come across any animals. An excellent hike is supposed to be Mt Greylock, the state’s highest peak at 3,491 feet (1,064 meters). Years after visiting the Berkshires, I decided to climb the highest state point for all the continental states in the winter. That means I plan to eventually hike Greylock and reach its snowy summit!
