Mount Fitch (Massachusetts)

{{Short description|Mountain in Massachusetts, United States}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox mountain

| name = Mount Fitch

| photo = Mount Fitch (Massachusetts) summit sign.jpg

| photo_caption = Sign at the summit of Mount Fitch, photographed in July, 2012

| elevation_ft = 3104

| elevation_ref = {{cite gnis |id=607419 |name=Mount Fitch |access-date=2024-06-01}}

| prominence_ft = 103

| prominence_ref = {{cite peakbagger |pid=7062 |name=Mount Fitch, Massachusetts |access-date=2024-06-01}}

| range = Taconic Range

| listing =

| parent_peak = Mount Greylock

| location = {{Nowrap|Berkshire County, Massachusetts, U.S.}}

| map = USA Massachusetts

| map_caption = Location in Massachusetts

| map_size = 180

| label =

| label_position =

| coordinates = {{coord|42|39|20.89|N|73|9|35.83|W|type:mountain_region:US-CA_scale:100000_source:GNIS|display=inline,title}}

| coordinates_ref =

| topo = USGS Williamstown, Massachusetts

| last_eruption =

| first_ascent =

| easiest_route =

}}

Mount Fitch is the third-highest peakList of mountains in Massachusetts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at {{convert|3,104|ft|m}}. It is located on the ridge between Mount Greylock at {{convert|3,489|ft|m}} to its south and Mount Williams at {{convert|2,951|ft|m}} to its north. The peak sits in the northwest corner of the Town of Adams (originally known as the Town of East HoosacA.L. Perry, "Origins in Williamstown", Heritage Books, 1894 on page 4) in Berkshire County. The forested summit is approximately {{convert|123|yd|m}} due west of a local high-point on the Appalachian Trail. Mount Fitch does not meet the Appalachian Mountain Club's prominence criterion of 200 vertical feet of separation from adjacent peaks as outlined in New England's Four-thousand footers list. Currently there is no side-spur trail or signage directing a hiker to the summit of Mt. Fitch from the Appalachian Trail; however, there is a wooden placard at the summit itself (pictured at right). The top is infrequently visited by hikers due to its anonymity, the bushwhack necessary to reach the top and the viewless summit.

File:Mt. Fitch Summit.jpg

The peak is named for Ebenezer Fitch,Deborah E. Burns and Lauren R. Stevens, Most Excellent Majesty: A History of Mount Greylock, Berkshire County Land Trust and Conservation Fund, 1988. who served as president of Williams College in nearby Williamstown, Massachusetts from 1793-1815. The name and geographic significance of the peak were disparaged by R.R.R. Brooks in his 1953 history of Williamstown, "[I]t is doubtful whether more than one resident in ten knows Mt. Williams from Mt. Fitch".Robert Romano Ravi Brooks, "Williamstown: the First Two Hundred Years", Williamstown, MA: McClelland Press, page 27

In 1947, local residents Dr. Joseph Wilk and Bartlett Hendricks terminated clear cutting the summit of Mount Fitch, which remains overgrown to this date.