While there's a new observatory in the works in Amherst, Massachusetts, it's not aimed at looking up. It's a landform observatory.
On a recent hot summer day Thomas Johnson, founder of the Friends of Mt. Pollux, and NEPM's Carrie Healy walked up to the future viewing area of the observatory to learn more about this special place.
Thomas Johnson, Friends of Mt. Pollux: Pollux and Castor are the names given to this glacial drumlin, the one right north of here by Professor Edward Hitchcock, who studied them and determined what they were. So, they were from Greek mythology and two twins.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Where did the inspiration for Mt Pollux Landform Observatory come from?
Well, I would come up here quite often and I would look out and enjoy the beautiful view. I obviously knew that I was looking west. Those were the Berkshires and so on. But it occurred to me that a lot of visitors that come here might know that that's the Berkshires, but that's about all. And so it occurred to me and just a couple of others, initially, that it would be nice to give people a sense of what they were looking at. And so I started months of research, and the more I learned, the more interesting it became. And the idea for the observatory expanded beyond just, you know, a simple explanation of what you're looking at to the geohistory and the relationship to the plate tectonics.
There are very few places on Earth where you can find a place that the continents collided, where there was hundreds of millions of years later, rifting of those continental plates (pulling apart) and looking east, yet another tectonic event over millions of years, which was the thickening of the crust. So, here in this very condensed area, you have these three major geological processes that happened.
It's appropriate, I think, to have the first modern enhanced observatory here in Amherst, because Amherst has been a center within North America with geology.
There was an original timeline that the friends were hoping to have this open on. And there's been a delay. How long have you been working on this? And what was the original hope for getting this going and what is that looking like now?
Well, I've been working on it about two and a half years. I worked for USAID and retired, but was doing consulting work. But when that ended at the beginning of the year, obviously I have more time. But the point is, it was just sort of a hobby, a pastime, a passion. And I said to myself, ‘We're talking about things that are hundreds of millions of years old. They're not going to change. There's really no rush.’ Although part of me wanted to get it done so that people would enjoy it.
So, I have worked with the assistant town manager, who's been great, responsible for all the conservation areas, and told him about the idea. He said, ‘Great, come in and present it to the Conservation Commission’ and he helped with that. They liked the idea. It was passed unanimously in January.
And the assistant town manager, Dave Ziomek, said, ‘Okay, it looks like we'll be able to get it done by the end of the summer.’ You know what getting grants and all that stuff's like, so there's a cycle. And then, of course, with the new (Trump) administration, a lot of assumptions changed. But they've been very good.
And I have a feeling now the new signage that is going to bless Mount Pollux, that you see other places around Amherst, will be installed. They have the money for that. The ADA work (on the parking and viewing area) is in process.
How will this observatory on Mount Pollux fit into a larger vision of the Pocumtuck Valley Landform Observatories system. Will there be a larger project happening?
I hope so! I think it's appropriate. The first one is here on Mount Pollux, because it's the only potential site that's of interest itself, really. But you have the Summit House [Holyoke] and it gives you an excellent view, particularly of the Berkshires. I'm obviously, unless you're looking straight down, you don't get a good perspective of the Holyoke range. So it's vistas a little more limited. But one thing is you get a gorgeous, impressive, instructive view of the Connecticut River and the famous Oxbow. And the other DCR site which you're probably familiar with is Mount Sugarloaf in South Deerfield, which again gives a tremendous view. In one of the photos I took on the site is from there looking south, and it has a pretty good view of the Berkshires as well. Not so good of the Pelham Hills. So, there are some bureaucratic issues we have to resolve, and basically, our strategy is let's get one up on Mount Pollux. It'll be the inaugural one. We'll allow the Commonwealth and the DCR people to take a look and see what happens.
How do you envision the information sitting on this area?
People love the vista! That's the reason folks come here, right?
But there are signs that you will find elsewhere in other conservation areas. There are about hip height, waist height with an angle. They're intended to be read, and then you put your head up and look. In other words, you look over them, right?
So they won't obstruct any view unless it's of the tall grasses here. And I don't think that's the view people are concerned about.
But that was the number one concern of the Conservation Commission, which of course, I 100% concur with. I even had a copy, a photograph of the appropriate sign, which they're already using. And there was a snafu and it didn't get to the commission. So they asked the question, but they would have seen that we'd already thought about that issue.
So we're not paving.. we're not putting up a building... It is simply just some information that sort of rests into the…
The only thing that might be kind of a downer is that there will be people up here with a phone in their hand, and rather than just photographing or videoing their friends, they'll be reading something. Okay? So there'll be more people standing up here with a phone in their hand, but they will be using it to good purpose.
Carrie Healy spoke with Friends of Mount Pollux founder, Thomas Johnson, before the work crews began working on the vehicular access, expansion and ADA parking upgrades at Mount Pollux for the forthcoming landform observatory. According to the Town of Amherst, that work is expected to wrap up at the end of the month.
