480 million year old fossils
Gastropod	Stromatoporoid	Cephalopod

Project Overview: The Lake Champlain Land Trust and the Isle La Motte Preservation Trust are working to acquire the 81-acre Goodsell Ridge property that is home to a unique collection of 480 million year old fossils that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Our vision is to open Goodsell Ridge to the public as an outdoor museum, a place to hike and search for the footprints of an ancient life system our land once knew. With your help, we hope to create a partnership between the public, private, educational, and scientific communities to create this unique outdoor museum and fossil preserve. It is our vision that current and future generations will be able to experience this unique scientific reserve firsthand. This land will provide us with an unparalleled educational opportunity and an outdoor classroom for students of all ages. We have an opportunity to both protect an important outdoor museum and create a network of fossil preserves within Isle La Motte. The Goodsell Ridge Outdoor Museum and Fossil Preserve will not only protect a world-renowned heritage area but also increase the community’s public access and outdoor recreation areas. The wonders of discovery will await students, scientists, and community members visiting Goodsell Ridge Outdoor Museum and Fossil Preserve.

Goodsell Ridge contains the most complete fossil record of the world’s oldest reef dating back over 480 million years ago. On Goodsell Ridge, between stands of cedars and clusters of purple clematis and snowy aster, the ancient bedrock juts out from the soil, displaying in swirls and fossils organisms of extraordinary antiquity.

Wildlife: Beaver, raccoon and fox tracks can be found along the Ridge. All of the Island’s provide abundant habitat for waterfowl, and Goodsell Ridge is no exception. It also provides lush breeding habitat for a number of songbirds and wild turkey. One can observe the Northern Harrier, often soaring over Goodsell Ridge, eyeing the open fields for prey.

Long ago, the Ridge was alive with the first inhabitants of the reef like structures. The spiny trilobite, ancestor to the modern horseshoe crab, made its way in and around the reef community. The cephalopod, an earlier form of the squid with a shell in the shape of a windsock, was another such primitive animal. Great cabbage-shaped creatures, stromatoporoids, grew from the ocean floor. Goodsell Ridge contains some of the earliest coral species. Early forms of sponges clung to the reef. All of these primitive species can be seen along Goodsell Ridge; even the tides and currents have been imprinted in the beds.