Bernardston, Massachusetts, initially known as Falls Fight Township,[3] was a frontier settlement created by and for the families of soldiers who had fought in King Phillips War, specifically in the Battle of Turner's Falls, a major engagement under Captain Turner in 1676.

[4] Major John Burke was an early settler of the town, his father was one of the veterans granted land in Falls Fight, as was the son of Hope Atherton.

In November 1734, the following was presented to the General Court of Massachusetts:[5] A petition of Samuel Hunt, of Billerica, for himself and other survivors of the officers and soldiers that belonged to the company of Capt.

Turner, and the representatives of them that are dead, shewing that the said company in 1676 engaged the Indian enemy at a place above Deerfield, and destroyed above three hundred of them, and, therefore, praying that this court would grant them a tract of land above Deerfield suitable to make a township.The petition was granted and the proprietors of the new township began recruiting 60 families to settle in the town.

The stockade walls stood 12 feet high behind which the inhabitants in the vicinity repaired every night during the periods of Indian troubles.

At about the same time a band of Indians attempted to destroy Deacon Ebenezer Sheldon's house on Huckle Hill, but were routed by his father Lieut.

The town also has the unusual distinction of having once sent the largest animal ever to the New York meat markets, a 2,473-pound (1,122 kg) ox nicknamed "Constitution" or "Hero".

[6] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 23.4 square miles (61 km2), all land.

The town is bordered by Guilford and Vernon, Vermont, to the north, Northfield to the east, Gill to the southeast, Greenfield to the southwest, and Leyden to the west.

To the northeast, portions of the Satan's Kingdom Wildlife Management Area pass into the town, mostly around Pond Mountain.

Bernardston lies along the path of Interstate 91 and U.S. Route 5, both of which pass from Greenfield through town towards the Vermont state line.

The town also lies along the north-south portion of the Springfield Terminal railway, which roughly follows the path of Route 10.

Bernardston employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen and an administrative assistant.

Bernardston is a member of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, which includes several northern border towns to the east.