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Artifacts & Documents: Artifacts

Fossil Tridentipes Insignis Prints

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This Tridentipes insignis track was found in the southwestern part of Turners Falls, Massachusetts, and can be found just across the river from Turners Falls at the "Horse Race" in Gill, and at a few other sites. No one knows how the Horse Race got its name. It may have been from actual horse races across the ice in winter. Oral history suggests another possibility: that before more dams were raised and the river was lower, this section of the Connecticut River was a shallow rapids, with a peculiar arrangement of large rocks going from bank to bank that reminded some people of racing horses. It seems to have been already an old name in Edward Hitchcock's time.

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Courtesy of:
Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College, photograph by Penny Leveritt