 Hermit Mountain is the site of "Hermit's Castle," a state historic site where John Smith, a local recluse, made his home from 1857 to 1900.Northfield Mountains' geologic story can begin in the late pre-Cambrian Period.The ancient pre-Cambrian rocks are more than 600 million years old and are found only in the Western Berkshires of Massachusetts and in the Green Mountains of Vermont.