Equinox Mountain: Difference between revisions
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==Geography== |
==Geography== |
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[[File:Equinox Mountain, Manchester, Vt (NYPL b12647398-74405).tiff|left|thumb|Equinox Mountain historical post card]] |
[[File:Equinox Mountain, Manchester, Vt (NYPL b12647398-74405).tiff|left|thumb|Equinox Mountain historical post card]] |
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The summit is part of a massif, or extended ridgeline which includes at least ten miles of terrain that is almost continuously above 3,000 feet. This area lies between Spruce Mountain on the north and Red Mountain to the south. The massif's various summits lie parallel to a deep valley running between Arlington and Dorset |
The summit is part of a massif, or extended ridgeline which includes at least ten miles of terrain that is almost continuously above 3,000 feet. This area lies between Spruce Mountain on the north and Red Mountain to the south. The massif's various summits lie parallel to a deep valley running between Arlington and Dorset occupied by the Batten Kill; western slopes drain into the Green River, a Battenkill tributary that forms the 10-mile, dead-end mountain valley occupied by [[Sandgate, Vermont]]. Equinox Mountain's immediate eastern flanks are incised by Skinner Hollow and Cook Hollow; its western flanks by Mears Hollow, Corbett Hollow and Hamilton Hollow.<ref>USGS via https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=43.17523,-73.13599&z=15&b=t</ref> Among these small and often very steep mountain valleys, all but Hamilton Hollow are undeveloped. |
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The east side of Equinox Mountain is drained by the Batten Kill; western slopes drain into the Green River, a Battenkill tributary that forms the 10-mile, dead-end mountain valley occupied by [[Sandgate, Vermont]]. |
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==Historical and present development== |
==Historical and present development== |
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Revision as of 22:09, 4 May 2023
| Equinox Mountain | |
|---|---|
 Little Equinox Mountain in 1985 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 3840+ ft (1170+ m)[1] |
| Prominence | 3,040 ft (930 m)[1] |
| Listing | New England Fifty Finest New England 100 Highest |
| Coordinates | 43°09′58″N 73°07′03″W / 43.165988°N 73.117574°W[1] |
| Geography | |
| Location | Bennington County, Vermont, U.S. |
| Parent range | Taconic Range |
| Topo map | USGS Manchester |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | road |
Equinox Mountain is the highest peak of the Taconic Range and the second-highest peak in southern Vermont, after Stratton Mountain. It has the third-greatest topographic prominence among Vermont's mountains, ranked behind only Mansfield and Killington. At 3,840+ ft (1170+ m), it rises nearly 3,000 feet (914 meters) above its base in the town of Manchester Vermont.
Geography
The summit is part of a massif, or extended ridgeline which includes at least ten miles of terrain that is almost continuously above 3,000 feet. This area lies between Spruce Mountain on the north and Red Mountain to the south. The massif's various summits lie parallel to a deep valley running between Arlington and Dorset occupied by the Batten Kill; western slopes drain into the Green River, a Battenkill tributary that forms the 10-mile, dead-end mountain valley occupied by Sandgate, Vermont. Equinox Mountain's immediate eastern flanks are incised by Skinner Hollow and Cook Hollow; its western flanks by Mears Hollow, Corbett Hollow and Hamilton Hollow.[2] Among these small and often very steep mountain valleys, all but Hamilton Hollow are undeveloped.
Historical and present development
During the 1860s a Manchester group built a 4-mile road leading south from the Beartown gap road nearly to Equinox's summit. As of a 1949 report, the former road, which reached only to Lookout Rock, had "long fallen into disuse but its route is readily discernable." [3]
The current toll road leads on a separate route north to the summit and was completed in 1947 by Joseph George Davidson, a retired Union Carbide Corp. executive, who soon also built a summit hotel there, initially for dining service.[4] Beginning in 1939 Davidson had acquired about 7,000 acres with tentative plans to develop a commercial ski area centered on upper Hamilton Hollow on the western slopes of Equinox. But as of his death in 1969, Davidson had completed transfer of all his Equinox property to the Carthusian-Catholic monastic order and paid for building the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration monastery (opened 1970) in the upper hollow.[5]
By 2011 the summit hotel, called Skyline Inn, was derelict and demolished to make way for a "viewing center" operated by the monastery,[6] which obtained 2019 gross receipts of $327,502 from its toll road and related gift shop, according to a tax filing.[7] [8]
Prospective developments on the eastern slopes of Equinox included a 1930s federal work program's unsuccessful proposal to cut ski trails. Potential east-side development continued with the 1962 sale of Manchester's Equinox House hotel and adjoining 1,500 acres of mountainside, after which a succession of corporate owners made ambitious proposals for a commercial ski area on that property. But a 1974 bankruptcy pushed all such ideas into abeyance and Equinox House stood empty during the subsequent decade.[9] (See also Equinox House Historic District.)
Radio station WEQX's tower is located on the mountain, hence the callsign of the station. A small, abandoned Cold War-era NORAD radar station can be seen near the summit. The site is now used for two-way communications by the Vermont State Police,[10] and for the other radio station to transmit from the mountain, Vermont Public Radio's WVTQ.[11]At least one of these tower sites had paid rent to the monastery.
Wind farming
Adjacent to the larger Equinox Mountains is Little Equinox, where two wind farms have previously operated. One wind turbine was installed in 1981 and three more in 1982, making Little Equinox Mountain the site of one of the first wind farms in the United States. These turbines, an early-generation design by WTG Systems of Buffalo, New York, were mounted on 80-foot (24 m) truss towers and had a nominal peak output of 350 kW. The turbines, however, were plagued with mechanical issues, and by the mid-1980s all four were out of service, standing idle on the mountain from 1985 through 1989.
Green Mountain Power began operating the site in 1988, erecting a wind measurement tower and removing the four old turbines. It installed two U.S. Windpower 100 kW turbines in 1990, which ran for four years making electricity. Green Mountain Power removed its turbines and measurement tower in 1994. The company now owns the Searsburg Wind Farm in Searsburg, Vermont.
Endless Energy Corporation, a wind farm development company based in Maine, has expressed interest in the site for a modern wind farm. They have conducted wind measurements as well as environmental studies of Little Equinox Mountain. To build a wind farm in Vermont, the developer needs to go through the Public Service Board's Section 248 application process. [12]
Summit panorama
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Equinox Mountain, Vermont". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
- ^ USGS via https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=43.17523,-73.13599&z=15&b=t
- ^ New Sky Line Drive Taps Choice Vermont Vistas: Summit of Mt. Equinox Reached by Toll Road Much Attention Trail to Summit First Link Everett M. Smith, The Christian Science Monitor, 09 Aug 1949: 7.
- ^ "If sufficient patronage develops, another 40 rooms will be added." E.F. Crane, New York Times, June 11, 1950, page 263
- ^ Carthsian web site; "Early times: The Sixties" https://carthusiansusa.org/early-times-the-sixties
- ^ equinoxmountain.com. "Mount Equinox - The Saint Bruno Scenic Viewing Center". www.equinoxmountain.com.
- ^ Form 990 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/30210978/08_2021_prefixes_01-20%2F030210978_201912_990T_2021082518762801
- ^ New Sky Line Drive Taps Choice Vermont Vistas: Summit of Mt. Equinox Reached by Toll Road Much Attention Trail to Summit First Link Everett M. Smith, The Christian Science Monitor, 09 Aug 1949: 7.
- ^ New England Ski History web-site page: "Mount Equinox Ski Area" https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/cancelledskiareas/Vermont/mtequinox.php
- ^ FCC Gullfoss Wireless License Query
- ^ Inc., Cavell, Mertz & Associates. "FCCInfo Results". www.fccinfo.com.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Wind Forum". Town of Manchester. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
External links
