Lets go to the Blue Hills

People from Dorchester are well acquainted with the imposing blue shape set against the horizon just along our southern boundary. Its Great Blue Hill, and at 635 feet above sea level, it is the tallest coastal elevation between Florida and central Maine.

The Native Americans called it Massachusett, which is an Indian word that means Large Hill Place. Back then, the summit was venerated for being as high as you could go to get close to the creator. Now, the entire state takes its name from this spot. Around here, we just call it Big Blue.

When you turn left from Columbia Road onto Blue Hill Avenue at the Franklin Park Zoo, and suddenly see Big Blue looming before you, it is an impressive sight. From here, Blue Hill Ave. points to it like a needle, cutting through Mattapan and ending at the base, six miles south on Route 138 in Milton.

Great Blue Hill is part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a woodsy paradise encompassed by Dedham, Milton, Canton, Quincy, Braintree, and Randolph. The reservation comprises a whopping 7,000 acres of open space for public use, all there to allow the city dweller to escape and unwind in nature.

There are times when hikers along the trails and hilltops of the park might imagine themselves to be in a wild corner of Maine or New Hampshire except for the hum of traffic on close-by highways that, though subdued at times, seems to be unavoidable.

On top of Big Blue is the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, established in 1885 by a graduate of MIT. A National Historic Landmark, it is the oldest continuous weather recording station in the country. On most days, Mount Wachusett is visible from the observatory at 44 miles, and on the clearest days, New Hampshires Mount Monadnock can be seen 75 miles distant.

A bit lower, on the north side, there is another tower, named for the landscape architect Charles Eliot, who helped create the park. Before the 1880s, this region was all pastures and farmland; visionaries like Eliot set out to return the landscape to its natural state.

From Eliot Tower, the Mormon Church on Arlington Heights is discernible, but Bostons skyscrapers block the view to the Middlesex Fells on the north. Still, at this height, the contour of the Boston Basin is clearly evident.

To the northeast lies a faint outline of the arm of Cape Ann reaching into the sea. Looking toward Milton and Canton, Houghtons Pond and Ponkapoag Pond reflect the sun like giant mirrors, and even though the peak foliage season has passed, large swaths of red and orange can be seen in the trees that turned late. Altogether, these things made for a very satisfying prospect during a recent visit.

Native Americans quarried the blue granite on Big Blue to make tools and arrowheads. In 1825, a modern quarry was begun on the hills at the eastern edge, in Quincy. The first railroad in the US brought the granite to the nearby Neponset River, where it was floated to the harbor and shipped to some of the most important building sites in the country.

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Lets go to the Blue Hills