Signage for Pioneer Valley Landform Observatory Installed on Mount Pollux

The town has installed a temporary sign on Mount Pollux as part of the Pioneer Valley Landform Observatory project (PVLO), which describes the tectonic and glacial geo-historical story of the Pioneer Valley and surrounding areas of Western Massachusetts. 

Thomas Johnson, of Friends of Mount Pollux, told the Indy that the sign includes QR code links to the PVLO website and a resource from Amherst College’s Beneski Museum. The temporary sign will be replaced in the Spring with the permanent signage fabricated of metal and fiberglass. A public dedication event will follow. 

Mt. Pollux was formed 50,000 years ago and is one of two named glacial drumlins in Amherst. The other is nearby Mt. Castor. The 360-degree view from the 345-foot summit affords views of the Pocumtuck (Pioneer) Valley and surrounding highlands, which, according to Johnson, “are the site of remarkable geohistorical events stretching from as far back as when continents collided, forming the Berkshires to the west 485 million years ago, to the recent formation of Lake Hitchcock at the end of the last ice age 7,000 years ago. The Pelham Hills to the east (330 million years old) are the remnant of a towering altiplano (high plain) which covered what is now central Massachusetts, while the Holyoke Range forming the south edge of the Pocumtuck Valley was created by the rifting of the Connecticut River Basin 200 million years ago.”

The Conservation Commission approved the project unanimously in January, 2025. Mount Pollux will be part of a system of Pocumtuck Valley Landform Observatories planned for Mt. Sugarloaf in South Deerfield and at the Mount Holyoke Summit House in Hadley. The observatories are the result of a partnership among UMass Amherst’s College of Natural Sciences, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Massachusetts Geological Survey, the Friends of Mount Pollux, and the Town of Amherst.