| Tekoa Mountain | |
|---|---|
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:South_face_of_Tekoa_Mountain,_Russell_MA.jpg) South face of Tekoa Mountain | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,121 ft (342 m) |
| Parent peak | 42° 10' 07"N, 72° 48' 47"W |
| Coordinates | 42°10′07″N 72°48′47″W / 42.16861°N 72.81306°W |
| Naming | |
| English translation | "Trumpet blast" or "place of fastening down" |
| Language of name | Hebrew |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | Montgomery and Russell, Massachusetts |
| Parent range | Berkshires |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Metamorphic rock |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | White dot trail starting near the tracks by the Mass Pike bridge. |
Tekoa Mountain, 1,121 feet (342 m), is a dramatic, rocky high point overlooking the Westfield River Gorge at the eastern edge of the Berkshire plateau in the towns of Montgomery and Russell, Massachusetts, USA. Tekoa Mountain, very prominent from the "Jacob's Ladder" section of U.S. Route 20 in the town of Russell, is not a true mountain but a cleaver jutting from a dissected plateau; it was produced by glacial action and through continuous erosion by the Westfield River and Moose Meadow Brook before and after the last ice age.
With nearby Shatterack Mountain, another cleaver, Tekoa Mountain forms a 700 ft (210 m) high knobby cliff face and gorge wall along the northeast side of the Westfield River as it plunges from the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts into the Connecticut River Valley. Much of the face of Tekoa Mountain is barren or populated by sparse tree cover exacerbated by frequent fires which support partially fire-dependent tree species such as pitch pine and scrub oak. The mountain is also the habitat of the New England cottontail, a species in decline in Massachusetts. Tekoa Mountain has been targeted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Connecticut River Valley conservation plan as a "high priority" ecosystem.