FOOD TRUCKS
CRAFT VENDORS
FREE Face Painting
Kids Crafts
Boutique Farmers Market
Community Art Show
Historical Tour
Metaphysical Authors & Vendors
Time Capsule Ceremony
Village Pie Auction

Free parking will be available at the Mohawk Ramblers Motorcycle Club on Lake Pleasant Road and extra parking will be available on one side only along Lake Pleasant Road.

An FRTA shuttle will be available throughout the day and evening to transport visitors to and from the Village common.

ADA parking will be available on Broadway for those needing extra assistance.

Timeline of the History of Lake Pleasant

(Excerpt from Spirit and Spa by David James and Louise Shattuck)

~ Circa 9,000 years B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) — What is now known as the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts is settled by Native Americans of Algonquin heritage. The so-called Pocumtuck Confederacy extends along the Connecticut River from south of the Massachusetts/Connecticut border north to southern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire. Principle tribes include: Agawam (Springfield), Norowottuck (Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton), Pocumtuck (Deerfield, Greenfield, Montague), Squakheags (Northfield). An estimated 5,000 Native Americans live in Pocumtuck Confederacy territory at the time colonization of the so-called “New World” begins.

~1620–The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock on the coast of what is now known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Pilgrims are befriended by Massasoit, grand sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy.

~1636–The Agawams sell the first of Pocumtuck Confederacy lands to Major John Pynchon, who establishes a trading post and settlement at what is now known as Springfield, Massachusetts.

~1675-1676–King Philip’s War. Metacomet, son of Massasoit, forges an alliance among Native American confederacies, including the Pocumtuck Confederacy, to stop expansion of European colonization. In 1675, an alliance war party attacks a supply convoy on its way to assist a besieged Deerfield settlement, and kills 84 soldiers and 18 teamsters in the Battle of Bloody Brook. In 1676, a settler militia group surprises an alliance encampment at Riverside, Gill, and kills an estimated 300-400 Native Americans, mostly women and children. The militia splits into two groups and heads back to its Holyoke base. One group of about 40 people, under the command of Captain William Turner, is overtaken and killed by Native American reinforcements at the Green River, near the current location of the Greenfield Municipal Swimming Pool.

~1754–The Town of Montague is incorporated. The Town of Montague now has five villages. Four of them, Turners Falls, Montague City, Montague Center, and Millers Falls, were founded prior to incorporation as industrial/farming centers. The fifth village, Lake Pleasant, begins as a recreational area almost a century and a quarter after incorporation of the town.

~1848–The birth of so-called Modern Spiritualism near Rochester, New York, when the teenage Fox sisters allegedly experience two-way communication between the world of the so-called living and the world of the so-called dead. The Fox sisters later tour the United States and Europe with demonstrations allegedly proving continuity of life and communication between those who live in the physical world and those who live in the spirit world, spurring international interest in Spiritualism and phenomenal growth of the Spiritualist religion.  

~1870–George Potter of Greenfield purchases land at the southern tip of Lake Pleasant, clears a grove, builds picnic benches and tables, and opens the area for recreation. Lake Pleasant becomes a gathering place for various fraternal and religious organizations, including Odd Fellows, Masons, Granges, Congregationalists, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Spiritualists, Unitarians.

~1872–The Fitchburg Railroad and the Massachusetts and Vermont Railroad companies purchase Potter’s land and begin to develop a resort on approximately 50 acres.

~1874–The forerunner of the New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association forms as  Spiritualists become the dominant users of Lake Pleasant.

~1879–The New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association incorporates. It later buys the land at Lake Pleasant from the railroads and sells tent lots to summer visitors. The original settlement is known as the Bluffs and an additional 50 additional acres on the western side of the ravine opens a second settlement known as the Highlands. 

~1880–A three-story hotel opens at Lake Pleasant.

~1886–A Commonwealth of Massachusetts charter is granted to the Town of Montague giving it rights to use Green Pond, Lake Pleasant, and the Connecticut River as municipal water supply sources.

~1887–A pumping station is completed at the north end of Lake Pleasant and begins operation.

~1888–A footbridge is built spanning the gorge at the southern end of Lake Pleasant and connects the two parts of the village, the Highlands and the Bluffs.

~1893–The Independent Order of Scalpers is founded. In addition to fraternal activities, the organization forms a band which plays at holiday functions throughout Franklin County and the surrounding region.

~1907–Fire rages through Lake Pleasant burning the hotel, a dance pavilion, the bandstands and half of the approximately 196 cottages which have been built on former tent lots. The train station is moved to “the Bluffs” and becomes part of a new hotel.

~1908-1914–The Turners Falls Fire District votes to take land bordering Lake Pleasant to protect and preserve the water supply. Thus the lake becomes closed to recreational use.

~1913–Disagreement over the concept of reincarnation splits the Spiritualist community of Lake Pleasant. Those rejecting reincarnation as retrogressive in a soul’s progression to perfection remain with the New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association and stay affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. Those embracing reincarnation as an essential means for a soul’s progression incorporate to form The National Spiritual Alliance of the United States, Inc., with a base in a building originally constructed as a printing plant for Spiritualist publications.

~1920s-1930s–Lake Pleasant begins to decline as a holiday resort. The closing of the lake to recreational use, such as fishing, swimming and boating, the rise of the automobile and its expansion of freedom of destination, the reduction of interest in the religion of Spiritualism, and the economic depression following the stock market crash of 1929 result in the demise of Lake Pleasant as a vibrant recreational/spiritual community.

~1955, an arsonist burns the New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association Temple. That Temple is not rebuilt and meetings are conducted first at Thompson Temple of The National Spiritual Alliance, then later at the Lake Pleasant Inn, which is owned by the New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association.

1975–The Lake Pleasant Village Association is formed, rebuilds the closed footbridge, and is instrumental in the incorporation of the Village of Lake Pleasant.

1976–The New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association, plagued by shrinking membership due to attrition by death and declining interest in Spiritualism, donates its property to the Town of Montague and fades away.

1977–The Town of Montague determines that the former New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association hotel is unsafe to use and too expensive to repair.  The Lake Pleasant Inn is demolished.