A watch tower is at the peak along with a commanding view of the river valley. The north part of Mt. Toby is the home of the Sunderland Cave. It is not technically a cave, but huge slabs of tipped conglomerate rock. Caves are rare in this part of New England, which has made this one more widely known. Sunderland s first Irish immigrants located their homes on Mount Toby in the mid-nineteenth century, which were known as paddy farms.
Trails are still evident, along with old stone walls marking boundary lines.
Sunderland, still then known as Swampfield, was set off from neighboring Hadley in 1673, with the Connecticut River as the western boundary with Deerfield. Montague was set off from Sunderland in 1754, and Leverett in 1774. Farming developed as the primary industry particularly crop production in the excellent soils of the river valley. Although farming was tile main occupation, there were supporting industries throughout Sunderland s history, such as tobacco shops and farm machinery suppliers, as well as sawmills stores, gravel operations, and blacksmiths. Today there is a large gravel operation, a rest home, garages and convenience stores, insurance and real estate operations, as well as vegetable farming.