Fossilized dinosaur footprints are common in the Connecticut River Valley.In 1927,when Belle Skinner changed the entrance of Wistariahurst from Pine St. to Cabot St, she also add a large, u-shaped driveway paved in stone slabs featuring fossilized dinosaur tracks and ripple marks.
The shale slabs can still be seen in the (no longer used) driveway of Wistariahurst. Though many of the tracks have worn away over time, some have been kept safe from the elements under the porte corchere and can be easily identified by guests.
The type of tracks are Eubrontes (the name refers to the print, not the dinosaur that made them) and they date from the Jurassic age, approximately 180 million years ago. Other stones feature clear ripple marks, fossilized remnants of the ancient lakeshores which defined the region at the time.