By Freke Ette
200 million years ago, long before humans settled in the Connecticut River Valley, dinosaurs walked the swamps and plains, leaving indisputable evidence of their presence in the area. And while New England may not be what springs to mind when one thinks of dinosaurs, some of the earliest fossils in the United States were found here in the 1800s.
Initially, paleontologist Edward Hitchcock described the fossils from Greenfield as bird footprints. The word ‘dinosaur’ had not yet been coined, and Hitchcock was unwilling to concede scientific discoveries that would undermine the predominant biblical worldview.
Fred Venne, Education Director at the Beneski Museum of Natural History, shared these anecdotes during a museum tour to kick off the 2026 Dino Trail Week 2: Evolution Revolution, which runs from July 11 to July 19.
The launch event took place on Friday, June 26, at the Beneski Museum, and featured representatives from organizations like the Shelburne Falls’ Piti Theater, the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls, the Wistariahurst in Holyoke, and the Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, CT.
The Dino Trail Week, now entering its second year, began as the Greenfield Dino Fest in 2017, eventually expanding into a valley-wide event.
Jonathan Mirin, the Artistic Director at the Piti Theater, explained that the Dino Trail Week brings the Pioneer Valley’s rich archeological heritage to life. For Mirin, the combination of hard science, storytelling, and deep time connected to locations around the Valley is a significant aspect of the week’s events.
Presenters unveiled a series of programs to celebrate dinosaur-themed festivities, with activities curated for people of all ages.
Janel Nockelby, Visitor Services Supervisor at the Great Falls Discovery Center, shared information about the Canalside Rail Trail and a dinosaur-themed story hour where visitors can make dinosaur tracks and dioramas.
Wistariahurst Museum Office Assistant Emily Munsell mentioned that visitors will receive a guided tour of dinosaur footprints along the museum driveway, with an additional tour, hosted by Venne, through a dinosaur footprint site in Holyoke.
In addition to ongoing events at the Great Falls Discovery Center, Sarah Doyle shared stories about Orra Hitchcock, a scientific illustrator and married to Edward Hitchcock, a former professor who later became the third president of Amherst College.
Doyle urged members of the community to consider stopping by the Deerfield Academy, where the Hitchcocks started their careers as teachers, to see Hitchcock’s highly detailed plant study notebooks on display.
Dino Trail Week 2026 Events
- Saturday, 7/11: Dinosaur Footprints at Barton Cove: History and Geology. Barton Cove, Gill.
- Sunday, 7/12: ART NATURALLY: Gel Printing Trace Fossils. The Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls.
- Monday, 7/13 – Friday, 7/17: Dino Drama Workshop. Greenfield Public Library, Greenfield.
- Tuesday, 7/14: Dino Double Header at Wistariahurst & The Trustees Dino Track, Holyoke.
- Wednesday, 7/15: Dino Trail Day. Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst.
- Wednesday, 7/15: Dino Wizards. Greenfield Public Library, Greenfield.
- Thursday, 7/16: Evolution Revolution, with New Dino Exhibit. Springfield Museums, Springfield.
- Thursday, 7/16: Museum Tour + Track Talk. Dinosaur State Park, Rocky Hill, CT.
- Thursday, 7/16: Geologic Walking Tour of Turners Falls. Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls.
- Friday, 7/17: Kidleidoscope Story Hour: Dinosaurs. The Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls.
- Saturday, 7/18: Great Greenfield DinoFest. 2nd Congregational Church on the Common, Greenfield.
- Sunday, 7/19: Dino Family Fun Day. Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke.
- Sunday, July 19: Art Naturally: Make Your Own Jurassic Dinosaur Habitat Diorama and Collage Workshop. Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls.
Further details for times and location of Dino Trail Week 2 event: Evolution Revolution can be seen here.
Discover more from THE AMHERST CURRENT
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
THE AMHERST CURRENT 
Being a geologist, one of my favorite stories of fossil discovery is when a CT DOT excavating contractor was working on the new Interstate 91 highway in August 1966. They overturned a slab of sandstone that exposed the famous three-toed dinosaur footprints found in the former lake bed Jurassic sandstone formation in Rocky Hill, CT. The discovery subsequently shifted the highway construction project to allow the preservation of the site as Dinosaur State Park.
The CT River valley is the only location in New England where we have geologic formations associated with the Mesozoic Era (252 to 66 Myrs ago) – structurally, the valley is separated into the Hartford Basin to the south, and locally the Deerfield Basin here in the Pioneer Valley. The CT River Valley was created as part of the failed “third arm” of a triple junction associated with rifting leading to the Atlantic Ocean Basin and separation of the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates. That depression caused by the initial rifting created the Jurassic lake bed that preserved the dinosaur footprints.
With additional rifting and tilting of the sedimentary formations, and subsequent erosion, we have local exposure of the Sugarloaf Arkose, a Triassic sandstone in Deerfield, and the Mount Holyoke Range in South Amherst, where basalt lava flows associated with the rifting comprise the cliffs on the northern slope of the range . . . one of the few east-west oriented ranges in the U.S.!
I hope the Dino Trails Week events enhance the creative juice of local scientific minds young and old 🙂
LikeLike