Pioneer Valley
[2] The lower Pioneer Valley corresponds to the Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area, the region's urban center, and the seat of Hampden County.
Similarly the Springfield–Chicopee–Holyoke economies transformed from volume producers of goods such as paper and armaments, into a combination of specialized manufacturing and distribution services for Boston and New York City.
The Connecticut River has been flowing through the valley for millions of years and was naturally dammed to form glacial lake Hitchcock during the last ice age.
[7][1] Geologically interesting parts of the Valley are the basalt flows and dinosaur tracks in South Hadley and Holyoke, Massachusetts, a chain of basaltic traprock ridges known as Metacomet Ridge along the ancient tectonic rift including the Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom ranges, layers of rock deposit laid down by the river, and varves and deltas deposited by Lake Hitchcock during the Pleistocene.
The county offers downhill skiing at resorts such as Berkshire East, white-water rafting, zip-lining, hiking, kayaking, and other outdoor pursuits.
Much of Hampshire County's cultural activity, vibrant nightlife, and musical venues are concentrated in these two small but lively municipalities that are separated by a mere seven miles.
It was one of the United States' most important precision manufacturing and defense centers until its relatively recent deindustrialization, which was catalyzed by the government's controversial closure of the Springfield Armory during the Vietnam War.
)[11] After nearly 30 years of decline, Springfield has since about 2006 experienced a cultural and economic resurgence, catalyzed by billions of dollars in private and public investment, including the funded construction of the United States' first high-speed bullet-train, known as the Knowledge Corridor intercity rail line as well as a sharp decreases in crime and new festivals that have renewed the city's traditionally robust civic pride.
According to the 2010 census, the Pioneer Valley features one of the highest per capita lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations in the United States.
[20] Springfield was Massachusetts' first settlement for non-religious reasons, although many of its settlers were very religious, as indicated by their first article of incorporation, "Wee intend by God's grace, as soon as we can, with all convenient speede to procure some Godly and faithfull minister we purpose to joyne in church covenant, to walk in all the ways of Christ"[7] In scouting Springfield, Cable, Woodcock, and Pynchon selected a spot just north of Enfield Falls, the first spot on the Connecticut River where all travelers must stop to negotiate a waterfall, 32 feet (9.8 m) in height, and then transship their cargoes from ocean-going vessels to smaller shallops.
Pynchon's party purchased land on both sides of Connecticut River from 18 tribesman who lived at a palisade fort at the current site of Springfield's Longhill Street.
With Windsor's and Wethersfield's consent, the three southerly settlements commissioned the famed Native American-conqueror Captain John Mason to travel to Springfield with "money in one hand and a sword in the other.
In 1651, Mary Parsons was accused of witchcraft—specifically "divers devilish practices by witchcraft, to the hurt of Martha and Rebeckah Moxon," two daughters of Springfield's first minister—and also of murdering her own child.
Standing to lose all of his land-holdings—the largest in the Connecticut River Valley—William Pynchon transferred ownership to his son, John, and then, in 1652, moved back to England with his friend, the Reverend Moxon.
The area suffered a major smallpox epidemic in the 1630s, following the arrival of Dutch traders in the Hudson Valley and English settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the previous two decades.
[32] This coincided with a souring of relations between the Wampanoag and the Massachusetts Bay colonists, eventually leading to the expanded Algonquian alliance which took part in King Philip's War.
At the Battle of Bloody Brook on September 18, 1675, the dispossessed Indians destroyed a small force under the command of Captain Thomas Lathrop before being driven off by reinforcements.
In retaliation, at dawn on May 19, 1676, Captain William Turner led an army of settlers in a surprise attack on Peskeompskut, in present-day Montague, then a traditional native gathering place.
It was overtaken by the rapid development of the Midwestern United States into the nation's breadbasket, with transportation to eastern markets and New York City enhanced by construction of the Erie Canal.
[43] Thereafter, the newly unoccupied area - being the eastern terminus of the Mohawk Trail, a principal route for Native American trade traveling west into New York - was colonized by the English in 1686 as part of Deerfield.
Earlier, from 1846 to 1850, John Brown, the famed abolitionist, lived in Springfield, where he met, for the first time the national leaders of the abolition movement like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.
More members of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Antiquarian Booksellers (36) are to be found in this area than in bookish Greater Boston (25).With an independent bookstore in almost every town, several small publishers, and countless local authors, the Valley could well be counted as a reader's paradise.
The most notable athlete to be born in the region is hockey player Bill Guerin, a Stanley Cup champion and Olympic Silver Medalist, who is from Wilbraham.
Historically a region known for growing Connecticut shade tobacco, today the Pioneer Valley has a broad and varied economic base, featuring more than 16 universities and liberal arts colleges (many of which are considered among the United States' best, e.g. Amherst College); numerous hospitals and healthcare organizations (e.g. Baystate Health, Massachusetts' third largest employer), and numerous financial service organizations (e.g. the Fortune 100 MassMutual).
The Pioneer Valley is considered to have a "mature economy", which means that its economic base is sufficiently varied so as not to be completely dependent on market fluctuations, like many places in the United States.
Similarly, the Basketball Hall of Fame, a shrine to the world's 2nd most popular sport, invented in Springfield, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors per year.
The Quadrangle in Springfield features five museums of varying themes, including the United States' first planetarium, gathered around the whimsical Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.
Politically, Hampden County leans liberal; however, it features several notably conservative cities and towns, such as Holyoke, Westfield, Agawam, Monson, and Palmer.
Government conservation efforts have targeted wildlife and rare plant habitats, recreational sites and corridors including the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, and the rich agricultural soils in farming towns such as Hadley, Massachusetts.
Recently, there has been a notable grassroots effort to reclaim Springfield's once easily accessible and pedestrian-friendly waterfront, which is now separated from the city by the eight-lane, elevated highway Interstate 91.
