You won’t find “Yokun Ridge” on older topographic maps. That’s because Yokun Ridge didn’t come to be until 2009, when the term officially applied to a 9-mile-long ridge composed of several linked mountains including Stockbridge Mountain and Lenox Mountain, and was accepted by the United States Board on Geographic Names. The Berkshire Natural Resources Council, owners and managers of the property began using the term Yokun Ridge to honor an early Mohican Indian named Jehoiakin? Yokun, who adopted Christianity as his religion and also fought in the French and Indian Wars. (His son Timothy fought on the American side in the Revolutionary War.) Before that, back in the 1740s, Yokun bought the land that now bears his name.  Later, Yokun sold the tract. Despite being hardscrabble ridgetop terrain, much of it was farmed and logged, the trees being used for charcoal to power nearby iron foundries during the Civil War. The open ridges provided distant views, and the mountaintops became coveted places for wealthy residents to build homes. One such majestic dwelling dubbed “Shadowbrook Cottage” eventually became a Catholic seminary but burned to the ground in 1956. The property is now a yoga retreat center named Kripalu.

Our June monthly group hike took us on a five mile loop of the South Yokun Ridge starting at the new High Road parking lot on Richmond Mountain Road taking the Kirpalu Connector to the Brothers and Charcoal Trail stopping at the Richmond Lenox Boundary stone, Olivia’s Overlook and both the East and West vistas on the South Ridge.

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