The 13-acre Steadman Pond is a fishing and swimming attraction within a 790-acre reserve adjoining the much larger Beartown State Forest. The pond, which has a swimming dock, is home to bass, beavers, and migrating ducks. Nearby woods and fields harbor deer, bobcats, scarlet tanagers, and pileated woodpeckers.

This land, and all of the present-day Berkshires, are the ancestral homeland of the Mohican people who were forcefully displaced to Wisconsin by European colonization. These lands continue to be of great significance to the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation today.

The pond is just a short walk, 0.2 miles, down a mown lane from the parking area. The pond was likely just a marsh with periodic beaver activity until sometime in the early 1900s when a stone dam at its northern end was built to create a source of hydropower for the Stedman Rake Factory down the hill in Tyringham.

The pond has a depth of about 15 feet and is fed by a stream at its southern end. Weed growth is common in summer. It has long been a popular swimming hole for area residents. Feel free to go for a swim, use the raft or bring along a canoe or kayak. Be prepared to carry your boat from the parking area to the water and make sure your boat is clean to prevent the spread of invasive species.

The surrounding woods and pond were donated by the Hudson and Howard families. The land was conserved in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Monterey Land Preservation Trust. There are no marked trails in the forest but there are wood roads, which were last used for logging in 2005. These roads, along with other paths, may be overgrown and difficult to follow. But they are open to hikers, hunters, cross-country skiers, and snowshoers.

Steadman Pond is beloved by locals. It is a place many appreciate as a quiet sanctuary. No one appreciates this peaceful place more than Sarah Hudson, who together with her brother Barclay Hudson, made the gifts that conserved Steadman Pond and its surroundings.