Connecticut western news., 1909-06-24
PICTURESQUE SAGE'S RAvINE
Salisbury's Famous Scenic Attraction
 Visited and Described.

SalisburYs Famous Scenic Attraction
 Visited and Described.
 Sage's Ravine, one of the most famous bits of natural scenery in these parts, was visited recently by party from Lee ,and the trip was written up in a very entertaining fashion by a member of the party in the Berkshire Cleaner. He says in part:
 The journey was by the midday train to Sheffield, where B span of horses was in waiting for the ride of seven miles to the entrance of Sage's RaviAe, noted for many years as one of the most romantic and wonderful natural features of Berk- shire. It is located in the town of Sails bury, Conn.,, but Is only just about its own width over the state line, and is part of the scenic attractions of the range which the Mt Everett is the central and dominant peak.
 The famous Under Mountain road runs from North Egremont directly under the base of Mt. Everett to Chspin- vile in the town of Salisbury. some eight or niue miles. Here more than anywhere else in Berkshire or in fact in all the mountainous section of western Massachusetts and western Connecticut, do farming conditions retain a consider able part of the prosperity and prestige of earlier generations. The fine farm houses that dot the mountain base look out into fine meadows, where the grass grows thick and strong and when it is put in titled crops bears astonishingly. "No abandoned farms" here although we did pass one house that had gone down ill ruin. We are told that on a single farm that we passed were once grown 500 to 600 barrels of apples a year beside quantities of pears, grapes and other fruit. All along for miles are the finest of orchards. The houses bear the Colonial features.
 The strong brook that comes down the ravine crosses the highway at the state line, having a big drop directly under the bridge. On the south bank are the remnants of an old wall. This is what is left of the foundation of a hammer shop that was run here in the early days and gave It's name to thls section, "Hammertown," of which we have duplicate.
 About half way up the gorge we come to the main falls. There are two, for while from the base one are seen in direct line, the pool into which the upper fall t.escends is so small that 1t is almost continuous fall. The extreme height is about one hundred and fifty feet. On both sides are sheer faces of mountain wall. A big log has fallen across the upper part of the chasm. as if bridge work This effect is heightened by a cross wall scanned into massive blocks, a piece of cyclopean masonry. All the way up the ravine are great logs, old trees that have fallen into the brook above, been shorn of their limbs and carried down when the water is in flood.
 The journey above the main falls takes one into wilder scenes, the cliffs i eAo hois hhO POOAo Aui hSl khV asVthb difficult. So strenuous is the climb that ill several places helping hand is needed. In one place misstep would have sent one hundred feet down into the chasm. The upper part of the ravine is most romantic. The falls are change fuI. the mountain wall higher, the cliffs sleeper, caverns form on the sides, the pools are darker. The distance through the ravIne is just about mile. It comes out into the open on the main mountain top The brook flowing through it rises on enc of the upper peaks known as Ashley Mt, which is 2400 feet high.