Great Blue Hill

Great Blue Hill is a hill of 635 feet located within the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton and Canton, Massachusetts 10 miles southwest of downtown Boston. It is the highest point in Norfolk County. The modern name for the hill was given by early European explorers who, while sailing along the coastline, noticed the bluish hue of the exposed granite faces when viewed from a distance . The Blue Hills' eastern slopes face the ocean and lie within Quincy. The area attracted quarrying for its "blue granite". The name of the Massachusett Indian tribe and their language derive from the Massachusett name for the hill: massa-adchu-es-et, where massa- is "large", -adchu- is "hill", -es- is a diminutive suffix meaning "small", and -et is a locative suffix, identifying a place.GeographyThe north and west sides of Great Blue Hill drain into the Neponset River, and thence into Boston Harbor. The south and east sides of Great Blue Hill drain into the Blue Hill River, thence into the Farm River, Monatiquot River, Weymouth Fore River, and into Boston Harbor.