HINSDALE, Mass. — Berkshire Natural Resources Council celebrated the recently completed accessibility renovations at Old Mill Trail with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. 

 

The celebration included a hike of the 1.4-mile Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant section of the trail. 

 

The initiative took about 2 1/2 years, recently concluding with the renovation of the parking lot. 

 

"We first built this trail to be accessible several years ago but until this summer, the accessibility was in name only. The parking lot was not accessible to mobility devices, and if you can't get out of your car, you can't go for a hike," BNRC President Jenny Hansell said. 

 

Timothy Crane, BNRC chair and a sixth-generation family member of the Crane family, said the community has had the opportunity to use this trail in its semi-accessible condition. Now that the trail is fully complaint, with the renovation of the parking lot, the struggle to get to the trail has been relieved. 

 

"They're going to be more people coming and we know that from our other accessible properties. There's a lot of people who can't just head out," Crane said. 

 

"And more and more organizations like us, and us in particular, are focusing our efforts on accommodating those people."

 

The approximately $90,000 renovation of the parking lot ensures that wheelchairs, strollers, and other mobility devices can now easily access the scenic trails. 

 

The council is a nationally accredited land trust that protects and preserves the Berkshires' natural beauty and ecological integrity for public benefit and enjoyment, Hansell said. 

 

"We care for over 26,000 acres of land, from Williamstown and North Adams, to Sheffield and Sandisfield and everywhere in between. Half of that — over 13,000 acres — are held in our 50 public reserves," Hansell said. 

 

"Nearly 20 of them have beautifully designed and built trails of varying length and levels of difficulty. Every single one of them takes you through forests, or fields, or river valleys, or over steep mountain ridges — somewhere you really want to go."

 

This is the organization's third accessible trail in the Berkshires. The other two are Parsons Marsh in Lenox and Thomas and Palmer in Great Barrington.

 

"It's not surprising that they are among our most popular trails — there hasn't been a time when I've been out there and not seen someone using their walker or wheelchair to find their way into the peace and beauty of nature. And when one person ventures forth, more will follow," Hansell said. 

 

The thing that makes the Old Mill Trail unique is the Housatonic River, since the portion the trail follows is unpolluted and often used for fishing, she said.

 

"How often do are you able to get down actually to the river if you're using mobility devices — it's unusual. And I think that's one of the things that's most special about this," Hansell said. 

 

The trail allows people with mobility issues to experience nature through common recreational activities such as birdwatching, searching for wildflowers and more, she said. 

 

State Rep. John Barrett III said this trail is special in many ways and the thing that stood out to him when he saw bill coming through is that it is accessible. 

 

Something you notice when going from a retired mayor to a state representative is that the Legislature does not know about the Berkshires as much as they should "and sometimes you have to try to be the loudest voice," Barrett said. 

 

"One thing that I've advocated for, and certainly the Berkshire delegation has advocated, is the new economy that's out there — and that's outdoor recreation," he said. 

 

"We've done it with Greylock Glen, that's hopefully coming to fruition at some point in time here with the trails." 

 

This trail makes those types of recreations to everyone. When Barrett thinks back to the days the American Disabilities Act was first enacted, he remembers a lot of people complained because they had to spend money to make things accessible. 

 

"Now we look back and it's because of that act that we see things like this happening in small towns in Berkshire County and across America. So, I'm happy to be here," he said. 

 

The 127-acre Old Mill Trail Reserve, was originally conserved by Crane & Co. with state Department of Fish & Wildlife. They initially collaborated with the Housatonic Valley Association to build the

trail and BNRC acquired the property in 2016.

 

The trail also gives hikers a glimpse of the extensive history of the area as they pass by landmarks such as a the remains of a 1938 Oldsmobile, built after the Hinsdale mills closed, parts of the foundation of the Lower Valley Mill, built in 1851 by Charles H. Plunkett, and a concrete foundation that housed a penstock, a pipe that delivers water to a mill. More information here. 

 

"This land, and all of the present-day Berkshires, are the ancestral homeland of the Mohican people, who were forcibly displaced to Wisconsin by European colonization," Hansell said. "These lands continue to be of great significance to the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation today,"

 

More information here. 

 

BNRC provides material documenting the area's history that hikers can use as a guide through their walk of the trail.

 

"In the era where water power was the only kind of power for manufacturing, the paper industry concentrated in places that had clean water for the paper making process," Crane said.

 

"That's why, from here all the way down through Lee and so forth, you'll see paper mill, after paper mill, after paper mill. [They no longer make paper] but it was an industrial process that really defined the Berkshires from a history of manufacturing."