Around New Year's Day, 1776, General Henry Knox passed through the town with cannons from Fort Ticonderoga, which he was bringing to help end the Siege of Boston.

Today, the path is known as the Knox Trail, and a historical marker is located in the village of North Egremont.

The town is bordered by Alford to the north, Great Barrington to the east, Sheffield to the southeast, Mount Washington to the southwest, and Copake and Hillsdale, New York, to the west.

Mount Fray is the site of the Catamount Ski Area, which is located both in Egremont, Massachusetts and Hillsdale, New York, and is one of only four ski areas in the United States to be located in two states.. Mount Whitbeck and its neighbor, the Jug End, make up the Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Management Area.

The Appalachian Trail extends through the reservation, before turning east at the Jug End towards Great Barrington.

Several brooks also flow through the town, with one being dammed to form the Mill Pond in South Egremont.

Massachusetts Route 71, which carries part of the Knox Trail, also passes through the town, from Alford to the north to Great Barrington to the east.

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

Egremont has its own police, fire and public works departments, and its post office also serves neighboring Mount Washington.

A 150 acre public park, located in North Egremont, has tennis courts, ball fields, a modern children's playground, a dog park, a riding ring, hiking and equestrian trails, picnic shelters, and other features.

Kindergarten and first-grade students from Egremont and Mount Washington attend either the South Egremont School, a one-room school-house for early-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grades,[17] or the Undermountain Elementary School in Sheffield, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

[18] There are private schools in adjacent Great Barrington, Sheffield, Salisbury and Lakeville (in Connecticut) and other nearby towns.