Its eleven house museums offer interpretation of society, history, and culture from the colonial era through the late nineteenth century.

The site of early 18th century colonial battles including the Raid on Deerfield, the town is a center of heritage tourism in the Pioneer Valley.

For several decades during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Deerfield was the northwesternmost outpost of New England settlement.

[8] At the time of the English colonists' arrival, the Deerfield area was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Pocumtuck nation, who settled a major village by the same name.

[13] After a potential location was claimed by others before Dedham could do so, a report was received about land at a place known as Pocomtuck, about 12 or 14 miles from Hadley.

[12] Joshua Fisher, Ensign John Euerard, and Jonathan Danforth were assigned by the selectmen to go and map the land in return for 150 acres.

"[16] On May 7, 1673, the General Court separated the town of Deerfield, with additional lands, provided they establish a church and settle a minister within three years.

[16] The Pocumtuck were much reduced in number by the time the settlers arrived, as they had been victims of infectious diseases and war with the more powerful Mohawk.

At the Battle of Bloody Brook, on September 18, 1675, during King Philip's War, the dispossessed Indians destroyed a small force under the command of Captain Thomas Lathrop before being driven off by reinforcements.

At dawn on May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner led an army of settlers in a surprise retaliatory attack on Peskeompskut, in present-day Montague, then a traditional native gathering place.

In the predawn hours of February 29, 1704, during Queen Anne's War, joint French and Indian forces (including 47 Canadiens and 200 Abenaki, along with some Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), Wyandot, and a few Pocumtuck, all under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville) attacked the town in what became known as the Raid on Deerfield.

The attackers took 112 captives, including women and children, and forced them on a months-long trek to Montreal, nearly 300 miles to the north.

When the Massachusetts Bay Colony released the French pirate Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste, Canada arranged redemption of numerous Deerfield people, among them the prominent minister John Williams.

[18] One of those captured and ransomed was Mehuman Kellog, the first white child born in Deerfield and a descendant of Robert Hinsdale.

Most of the Deerfield captives eventually returned to New England; others remained by choice in French and Native communities, such as Kahnawake, for the rest of their lives.

It was overtaken by the rapid development of the Midwestern United States as the nation's breadbasket, as transportation to eastern markets and New York City was enhanced by construction of the Erie Canal and later railroads.

During the Colonial Revival movement of the late nineteenth century, Deerfield citizens rediscovered the town's past.

Residents founded the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association in 1870 and erected monuments to commemorate various events, including the Bloody Brook and 1704 attacks.

[20] Baker was assisted by the Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and her project was one of the first in historic preservation in western Massachusetts.

Local historian George Sheldon wrote an account of the town's early history that was published in the late nineteenth century.

[21] By this time South Deerfield and other New England villages were already absorbing a new wave of Eastern European immigrants, particularly from Poland.

[23] Deerfield is located in the northern Pioneer Valley and is bordered by Greenfield to the north, Montague to the northeast, Sunderland to the southeast, Whately to the south, Conway to the west, and Shelburne to the northwest.

North Sugarloaf Mountain rises above the Connecticut in the southeastern corner, providing a panoramic view of the valley and the town center.

A portion of the Springfield Terminal freight rail line passes through the town before branching off eastward and westward around Greenfield.

Deerfield is the central member of Frontier Regional and Union 38 School Districts, which also includes Conway, Whately, and Sunderland.