Green Mountains

The Green Mountains are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Vermont. The range runs primarily south to north and extends approximately 250 miles (400 km) from the border with Massachusetts to the border with Quebec, Canada. The part of the same range that is in Massachusetts and Connecticut is known as The Berkshires[1] or the Berkshire Hills[2] (with the Connecticut portion, mostly in Litchfield County, locally called the Northwest Hills or Litchfield Hills) and the Quebec portion is called the Sutton Mountains, or Monts Sutton in French.[3]

This article is about the mountain range in Vermont. For other uses, see Green Mountain (disambiguation).
Green Mountains
Green Mountains looking South from the summit of Mount Mansfield
Highest point
PeakMount Mansfield
Elevation1,338 to 1,340 m (4,390 to 4,396 ft) 
Geography
LocationVermont
Parent rangeAppalachian Mountains

All mountains in Vermont are often referred to as the "Green Mountains". "Green" because even with winter snow the trees hide the snow and they still appear "Green". However, other ranges within Vermont, including the Taconics—in southwestern Vermont's extremity—and the Northeastern Highlands, are not geologically part of the Green Mountains.

Peaks
Green Mountains looking south from Jay Peak
Jay Peak, located at the northern end of the Green Mountains in Vermont
Green Mountains outside of Montpelier, Vermont

The best-known mountains—for reasons such as high elevation, ease of public access by road or trail (especially the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail), or with ski resorts or towns nearby—in the range include:[4]

  1. Mount Mansfield, 4,395 feet (1,340 m), the highest point in Vermont
  2. Killington Peak, 4,241 feet (1,293 m)
  3. Camel's Hump, 4,084 feet (1,245 m)
  4. Mount Ellen, 4,083 feet (1,244 m)
  5. Mount Abraham, 4,017 feet (1,224 m)
  6. Pico Peak, 3,957 feet (1,206 m)
  7. Stratton Mountain, 3,940 feet (1,200 m), the mountain at which the initial ideas of both the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail were born
  8. Jay Peak, 3,862 feet (1,177 m), receives the most snowfall on average in the eastern United States.[5][6]
  9. Bread Loaf Mountain, 3,835 feet (1,169 m)
  10. Mount Wilson, 3,780 feet (1,150 m)
  11. Glastenbury Mountain, 3,748 feet (1,142 m)
  12. Burke Mountain, 3,280 feet (1,000 m)

The Green Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains, a range that stretches from Quebec in the north to Alabama in the south. The Green Mountains are part of the New England/Acadian forests ecoregion.[7]

Three peaks—Mount Mansfield, Camel's Hump, and Mount Abraham—support alpine vegetation.

Tourism

Some of the mountains are developed for skiing and other snow-related activities. Others have hiking trails for use in summer.[8] Mansfield, Killington, Pico, and Ellen have downhill ski resorts on their slopes. All of the major peaks are traversed by the Long Trail, a wilderness hiking trail that runs from the southern to northern borders of the state and is overlapped by the Appalachian Trail for roughly ​1⁄3 of its length.

History

The Vermont Republic, also known as the Green Mountain Republic,[9] existed from 1777 to 1791, at which time Vermont became the 14th state.

Vermont not only takes its state nickname ("The Green Mountain State") from the mountains, it is named after them. The French Monts Verts or Verts Monts is literally translated as "Green Mountains". This name was suggested in 1777 by Dr. Thomas Young, an American revolutionary and Boston Tea Party participant. The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College is referred to as UVM, after the Latin Universitas Viridis Montis (University of the Green Mountains).[10]

Geology and physiography
Map of the main regions of the northern Appalachians

The Green Mountains are a physiographic section of the larger New England province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division.[11]

Lemon Fair runs through the towns of Orwell, Sudbury, Shoreham, Bridport, and Cornwall, Vermont, before flowing into Otter Creek. The story is that its name derives from early English-speaking settlers' phonetic approximation of 'Les Monts Verts'.

See also

References
  1. "The Mountains of Vermont". Saint Michael's College. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  2. "Berkshire Hills". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  3. "Monts Sutton". Commission de toponymie Québec. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  4. Peak elevations taken from "Mountain Peaks, Summits, and High Points". Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  5. Wheeler, Scott (February 2008). The Man Who Helped Electrify the Jay Peak Ski Area. Northland Journal.
  6. McLean, Dan (July 1, 2008). Investors purchase Jay Peak. Burlington Free Press.
  7. Olson, D. M, E. Dinerstein; et al. (2001). "Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth". BioScience. 51 (11): 933–938. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Green Mountains (Vermont) : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering. SummitPost. Retrieved on 2013-07-12.
  9. See, e.g., Robert Temple, Edge Effects: The Border-Name Places (2008), p. 6; Paul Finkelman and Stephen E. Gottlieb, Toward a Usable Past: Liberty Under State Constitutions (University of Georgia Press, 2009), p. 375; Ralph Nading Hill, The College on the Hill: A Dartmouth Chronicle (Dartmouth Publications: 1965), pp. 46, 50; Vermont Historical Society, Vermont History, Vol. 66-67 (1998), p. 87.
  10. History and Traditions, University of Vermont.
  11. "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S." U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2007-12-06.

Green Mountains travel guide from Wikivoyage

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