Umpachene River — perhaps more correctly a brook — cascades over Umpachene Falls before joining Konkapot River south of Mill River village. The name suggests Aaron Umpachene (1676‐ 1751) — a Mohican leader whose village was on Vosberg Hill in south Great Barrington before its inhabitants merged with John Konkapot’s in Stockbridge — and his group may have stayed in the vicinity seasonally to take advantage of hunting and gathering opportunities.

Umpachene was commissioned a lieutenant in the Provincial Militia. According to the Rev. Harley Goodwin, Umpachene’s “residence was on its [the town’s] western side, about one mile southwest from the north meeting‐house.”

Today the falls is a town park.

According to historian Hadley K. Turner, as Native Americans emmigrated to New York state, “One family of Indians refused to give up the ‘happy hunting grounds’ of New Marlborough. ‘Old Anthony’ and his family stayed on.” Turner said there is an Indian burying ground on the Smith/Ranolde/Konkapot Mills farm.
— Bernard A. Drew

•   Dunn, Russell. Berkshire Region Waterfall Guide. Hensonville, N.Y.: Black Dome Press, 2008.

•   Goodwin, Harley. “A History of the Town of New Marlborough” in A History of the County of Berkshire, Massachusetts, Chester Dewey and David Dudley Field Sr., eds. Pittsfield: Samuel W. Bush, 1829.

•   Turner, Hadley K. A History of New Marlborough 1735‐1944. Great Barrington: Berkshire Courier, 1944.