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N Massachusetts, near the cities of Holyoke and Northampton, close by "the lovely vale of the sweetest stream that flows, the winding and willowy-fringed Connecticut," stands Mt. Tom. It is the highest peak of the Mt. Tom range. It dominates the beautiful and picturesque section of country of which it is the central figure. From the south it seems solid, bold and defiant against the sky, a dome-shaped monument of trap-rock and sandstone suggestive of the times when Nature was struggling to rescue from the great prehistoric ocean of ice and water the fair country of which it is a part, and to close the volcanoes that were active about its base. For lovers of natural scenery Mt. Tom has a perfect location, with the peculiarity of being high above the general level of the country near it.
There is a tradition that in 1650 surveying parties, headed by Rowland Thomas and Elizur Holyoke, each ascended the two mountains on their lines of survey and named them Mt. Tom and Mt. Holyoke respectively.
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