2", organized into an independently governing town body in 1745, and was officially incorporated on June 30, 1761.

In May 1812, Colrain was the first town in the United States to fly the U.S. flag over a public schoolhouse.

[3] Many of the original settlers were immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, and it is said that the town was named in honor of Lord Coleraine, an Irish peer.

According to local tradition, Lord Coleraine was so well pleased by this that he sent a fine bell to the townspeople for their new meeting house.

Apparently, so the story goes, it was sold by the unscrupulous agent to whom it was entrusted, and was installed in a church in Boston.

[3] During the period of King George's War, Colrain was an active military front.

This was a source of considerable irritation for the townspeople, who were obligated to house the garrison troops in their homes.

Until the expansion of New Salem after the building of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s, Colrain was the largest town in the county.

The town is bordered by Halifax and Guilford, Vermont, to the north, Leyden to the east, Greenfield to the southeast, Shelburne to the south, Charlemont to the southwest, and Heath to the west.

Colrain is located in the northeastern part of the Berkshires, with the many hills divided by the rivers which run through town.

The main road through Colrain is Massachusetts Route 112, whose northern terminus is in town at the Vermont state line.

The nearest national air service can be found at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

The population density was 41.8 inhabitants per square mile (16.1/km2), which ranks nineteenth in the county and 318th in the Commonwealth.

Colrain employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen.

[18] The town is patrolled by the Second (Shelburne Falls) Station of Troop "B" of the Massachusetts State Police.

Massachusetts is represented in the United States Senate by Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.