Beneski Museum a hidden gemDate: 7/15/2016 AMHERST – A hidden gem of a museum makes a great and nearby – adventure for the family who enjoys all things dinosaur.
The Beneski Museum of Natural History at Amherst College is the home of a large and well-curated and presented collection of fossils that include dinosaur footprints found locally to fossils discovered during a expedition to Patagonia members of the college undertook in 1911.
The museum grew out of the collection of fossil tracks established by Professor Edward Hitchcock who joined the college in 1825. The first dinosaur footprints were discovered South Hadley by Pliny Moody in the 1830s when plowing a field. Some people interpreted them in a biblical manner and saw them as the footprints of “Noah’s raven.”
Eventually scientists began to understand the footprints preserved in stone represented evidence of animals no longer walking the earth.
Fossils large and small are the hallmark of the museum. While the first floor center display of restored skeletons of Ice Age mammals draw a visitor’s attention. The three floors of the museum are lined with drawers containing smaller fossils with detailed annotations.
Admission to the museum is free and it is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Monday.
It’s located near the center of the Amherst College campus in a building simply marked “Beneski.”
The GPS friendly address is 11 Barrett Hill Drive, Amherst MA 01002.
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