Change Over Time
The top now-and-then VR image shows the view from the top of the Mt. Pollux parking area looking south towards the Holyoke range. The surface of Lake Hitchcock within the upper Pioneer Valley has been determined by geoscientists to have been around 300 feet above sea level. Mt. Pollux, at 345 feet, was an island in the lake, as were Mt. Castor, Mt. Warner and the Amherst Block (today the site of Amherst College and downtown). It so happens that the elevation of the top of the Mt. Pollux parking area is 300 feet, and hence at one time near the site of the ancient Lake Hitchcock/Hadley shoreline.
The second VR image set of now-and-then shows the Lake Hadley shoreline lapping against the current path running west from the top of the parking area to the trail down to Middle Street.
The final image depicts the extent of Lake Hitchcock within the Pioneer Valley (Lake Hadley) looking south from atop Mt. Sugarloaf in South Deerfield. Mt. Warner can be seen at the center-left. The “then” lake water level and shoreline extent illustrated is less than at the Lake Hadley’s peak size.