Wednesday Walk: Fossil Hunting (Goodsell Ridge Preserve)

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Today we drove to Isle La Motte, Vermont to walk around the Goodsell Ridge Preserve. It is a large property that is home to the oldest reef fossils in the world. The fossils at Goodsell Ridge are within a larger reef called the Chazy Fossil Reef, which spans multiple islands between New York and Vermont. Some of the limestone from Chazy Reef was used to build Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It was also used to build the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

The land was purchased by Lake Champlain Land Trust in 2005 to prevent potential quarrying and development. It's free to visit, and not too far away, so we figured it was a good way to get out of the house. I'm not normally a fossil or geology enthusiast, but was really impressed with this place. It was a self-guided tour that let us take various wooded paths to different discovery areas. It was an incredibly scenic and quiet place to contemplate while also keeping your eyes peeled for various fossil shapes featured on the nearby panels.

The most common fossil we saw was the gastropod, which is the spiral-shaped fossil. They are also known as early snails that existed between 450-480 million years ago. Check out my photos below to see photos of the fossils we found along our walk among the beautiful scenery.