Part of the earliest biologically diverse reef system on Earth, laid down about 460 million years ago in a shallow tropical sea and now the bedrock under the southern third of Isle La Motte, the northernmost island in Lake Champlain. The Isle La Motte Preservation Trust keeps two pieces of it open. At Goodsell Ridge the Walk Through Time trail runs almost a mile past seven fossil discovery areas, the trails are open all year, and a visitor centre in an old dairy barn opens from late spring to early fall. Fisk Quarry, the oldest quarry in Vermont, first cut by the French in 1666 for the lime mortar of Fort St. Anne, shows spiral gastropods in its floor and white stromatoporoids in its walls. Both have been a National Natural Landmark since 2009. Photograph the fossils and leave the rock where it is.
Stromatoporoids, gastropods, bryozoans, sponges, cephalopods · Middle Ordovician, ~460 mya
This ground is protected. Photograph it, record it, leave it where it lies. On US federal land the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 2009 makes collecting vertebrate fossils an offence, and penalties are real.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
