Here you can see the broad and beautiful river in a peaceful, shady setting. You can even go for a swim. Get back on I-91 north to Exit 19 and follow Route 10 north to Emily Dickinson's home town, the intriguing, historic and charming town of Amherst, Mass., home of the Pratt Museum of Natural History at Amherst College. The Pratt Museum houses the world's foremost collection of dinosaur tracks, more than 1,100 stone slabs with fossilized footprints, mostly from the Connecticut River valley. This massive collection is available for viewing by groups of 10 or more.
Children visit the early Jurassic forest in the exhibition center.
Many of the specimens in the collection are from the Barton Cove quarry area at Turners Falls, next stop along Dinosaur Alley. In the public exhibition area, there are also dinosaur bones that you don't need an appointment to see. There are dinosaur bones from South Dakota and the bones of duck-billed dinosaurs from Alberta, Canada. Other exhibits include skeletons of such prehistoric creatures as the mammoth and the mastodon. Fossil lovers can spend a lot of time prowling the quiet corridors of the Pratt.