The Great Greenfield DinoFest has Grown into Something Gargantuan:
Drumroll Please . . . for Dino Trail Week
You’ve heard of the Asparagus Trail and the Appalachian Trail but what about the Dino Trail? Piti Theatre, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, the Beneski Museum of Natural History, Springfield Museums, The Wistariahurst Museum, Great Falls Discovery Center, Jurassic Roadshow, the Rock, Fossil and Dinosaur Shop and The Trustees of Dino Footprints in Holyoke have joined forces to create the Connecticut River Valley’s own Dino Trail with its’ own Dino Trail Week. Events are planned up and down the Valley from July 5 – 13 as these seasoned organizations offer a series of family-friendly events to engage all ages with our region’s unique dino, deep time and local histories. All events are free (Springfield Museums with museum admission).
More @ dinotrail.org
Dino Trail Week Events
7/5: Dinosaur Day with Paleontologist Barbie & Ken @ Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield – Local History Day with Jurassic Roadshow’s real fossils, 10 am – 2 pm
7/9: Dino Day @ the Beneski Museum of Natural History with Scavenger Hunts, Guided Tours and Piti’s Story Wizards improv performance, Amherst (Dino-Theme for Dino Trail Week @ 2:30 pm), 10 am – 3 pm
7/9: Piti Theatre’s Dino-Themed Story Wizards performance @ the Greenfield Public Library, 6 pm
7/10: Dino Day @ Springfield Museums: Hands on activities & preview the New Dino Exhibit, 11 am – 3 pm
7/11: Kidleidoscope Story Hour: Dinosaurs + Talk by Dr. Paul Olsen @ the Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls: Learn more about giant creatures from the past that roamed the Connecticut River Valley. Program includes a story, activities, and crafts for ages 3 – 6 from 10:30 – 11:30 am and then Dr. Olsen will offer “Climate Cycles & Volcanic Singularities During the Dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs”, 7 – 8:30 pm.
7/12: Great Greenfield DinoFest on the Lawn in front of Second Congregational Church, 10 am – 12 pm – interactive exhibits, live music, games and a Dino Wizards Story from Piti Theatre.
7/12: ART NATURALLY: Gel Printing Trace Fossils @ Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 – 3:30 pm: Create an art piece inspired by the valley’s fossilized dinosaur footprints using paint, paper and gel, with instruction and techniques – for adults, teens and children ages 6 and up.
7/13: Dino Family Fun Day @ the Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, 12 – 3 pm: Outdoor and sensory friendly dino-themed activities for the whole family. Learn about the dinosaur tracks leading up to the museum, see the official Massachusetts state Dinosaur Podokesaurus Holyokensis, and dance with a dino!
BONUS EVENT:
7/20: Dinosaurs in the Driveway @ the Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, 1 – 2 pm – Local history and dino expert Sarah Doyle, director of the pop-up Dino exhibit Jurassic Roadshow, dives into the history and science of Wistariahurst’s dino footprints leading to the museum.
All July Long:
Indoor StoryWalk – Daring to Dig: Adventures of Women in American Paleontology @ The Great Falls Discovery Center
All year long:
The Trustees: Dinosaur Footprints, Holyoke on Rt. 5 (thetrustees.org)
Dawn of the Dino Trail
Intrigued by Piti Theatre’s New England-wide Bee Week program and the annual BeeFest launched by Greenfield’s Second Congregational Church, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association’s long-time Executive Director Tim Neumann and Piti’s Co-Artistic Director Jonathan Mirin discussed how to bring dinosaur history to life for local residents. Neumann states, “I thought that the rich intersection of deep time and local history might merit a new celebration around a great scientific contribution from Greenfield’s history.”
In 2017, the Great Greenfield DinoFest was born. The Festival was particularly indebted to the extraordinary lives of Greenfield’s Dexter Marsh, a day laborer who noticed what looked like bird footprints in the flagstone from Montague he was using to lay sidewalk near Town Hall in 1835 – seven years before the word dinosaur was invented – and James Deane, the first person to treat the strange impressions as objects of scientific interest. Marsh’s keen eye and Deane’s analysis piqued the interest of Amherst College’s Professor Edward Hitchcock, who became the first scientist to study dinosaur tracks and interpret their meaning. Hitchcock died believing the tracks had been made by giant prehistoric birds, but nevertheless, Marsh, Deane, and Hitchcock played important roles in the birth of the new branch of paleontology called ichnology.
In summer, 2024 after years on informal networking amongst the Valley’s Dino stakeholders, a new era was born as the organizations collectively decided to transform DinoFest into a valley-wide Dino Trail Week. Reflecting on the evolution, Mirin states: “it just makes sense for this group of organizations to collaborate on a Dino Trail. The fascinating intersection of deep time, science and local history in the Valley makes for great storytelling and each of our partners tells aspects of the story in their own way which means this series of events really has something for everyone.”
DinoTrail Week is supported in part by grants from the Crossroads Cultural District, the Mass Cultural Council, Friends of the Greenfield Public Library and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. Special thanks to the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and the Greenfield Business Association.
