Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 1014 | Page 34

ROAD TRIP
Introducing the first scenic highway in the United States: The Mohawk
Trail in northwestern Massachusetts. This sixty-three mile ribbon of scenery was designated a scenic tourist route by the Massachusetts legislature
and dedicated October 22, 1914.
Like the Natchez Trace Parkway, it was originally an Indian footpath
used for trading, hunting and socializing. For centuries this trail was in the
remote wilderness and only wide enough for the travelers to walk singlefile. With westward migration of settlers, the trail was widened and routes
were altered to accommodate the evolution of transportation from feet to
horses to carts to cars.
With the advent of the automobile, the route was paved and dedicated, and the rush was on to see magnificent mountain scenery, flaming
autumn foliage, historic towns and kitschy tourist attractions. Popping
up to accommodate the new mobile generation exploring this Berkshire
Mountain area were cute one-room cabins for the weary to rest and myriad food stands where the hungry could eat. After all, a sixty-three mile
road took a little longer to travel at ten miles an hour.
Traveling the road today from Orange to Williamstown, considered
the east and west terminus of the Mohawk Trail, is similar to exploring
historic Route 66. You have to suspend the urge to just complete the trip
and become the adventurous stop-and-explore kind of driver. When you
drive this road, you are driving into American history, and there is a lot
more to see besides beautiful countryside.
Routes 2 and 2-A roughly follow the old Indian path. Stay on Route
2-A and you will be rewarded with the scenic beauty that attracted the
early tourists, as well as remnants of a lifestyle that vanished long ago.
Route 2-A is the road to drive to go back in time: Back to the turbulent
times of the early Colonial period. Back to the American Revolution. Back
to the age of industrialization; and back to the birth of the automobile.
We begin the tour just outside Orange where you can still see the Art
Deco roadside diner formerly known as the White Drum. It was built in
1934 and, unlike many of the other enterprises along the trail, this one is
still in business.

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As you travel west, you cross the 782-foot steel arched French King
Bridge, which was built in 1932 to cross the Connecticut River. A plaque
at the end of the bridge informs the reader that the bridge was constructed
with genuine Bethlehem steel. Try finding that on a new steel structure
today! The bridge is named for French King Rock, a large rock in the
center of the river. According to local legend, a French flag was planted
on this rock during the French and Indian War, claiming the territory for
the King of France.
After crossing the bridge, you enter Greenfield, where the original
east-west Mohawk Trail is Main Street through downtown Greenfield.
South of Greenfield is Deerfield, which was settled by English farmers in
1669 and is called “the gem of rural New England.” Deerfield is now a
national historic landmark and reminds one of Williamsburg, VA.
As you leave Greenfield and continue west, the terrain becomes more
mountainous and the true beauty of the Mohawk Trail begins. Along this
section, many establishments were built for tourists, and many still exist.
One common attraction along the trail is the multiple-story observation
tower. It was built in 1923 as part of the multiple-attraction genre that
was popular at the time. The names of businesses had to be exotic to make
these attractions exciting to draw in the crowds, so when this observation
tower was completed, it was called “Longue Vue.”
As you enter the towns along the trail, you’ll encounter signs stating
what year the town was incorporated. Shelbourne, a Victorian-era town,
was incorporated in 1768 and still bears a close resemblance to its early
days. The Shelbourne Hotel, which was built prior to the advent of the
automobile, is still functioning - but is now the Keystone Market.
The Sweet Heart restaurant, which evolved in 1915 from an idea of
selling small hearts of pure sugar to the passing motorist, is presently undergoing renovation and plans to again start serving the hungry travelers who desire an alternative to fast food. The most unusual and famous
attraction is the old abandoned trolley bridge that crosses the Deerfield
River and once connected the towns of Shelbourne and Buckland.
The local garden clubs began planting flowers along the active trolley
bridge in 1919 as a memorial to World War I. Around 1926 the trolley
service was discontinued and the Shelbourne Falls Women’s Club brought
in eighty loads of loam, several tons of fertilizer and planted over 500
varieties of flowers and plants which grow in soil ranging from two to
nine feet deep. This pedestrian-only bridge offers appealing views of the
Deerfield River and the towns on either side.
On a more modern note, the largest supplier of Corvair parts in the
U.S. is right outside of Shelbourne. Clark’s Corvair Parts, Inc., started
by Cal and Joan Clark out of their house in January 1973, had only 150
parts in their first catalog. In their eight buildings m [