We are pleased to find Nash Dino Land continuing its narrow avoidance of the fate of its primal inhabitants -- extinction. This out-of-the-way western Massachusetts attraction is run by Kornell Nash, son of the late Carlton S. Nash. Carlton was the original discoverer of a fossil treasure trove, unearthing and selling thousands of dinosaur tracks since 1939. Thunderlizard footprints are still for sale, at prices ranging from $50 to $900. "You sell two or three of these a week, you're doing all right," says Kornell. "It's not much of a living, but it's a living." One wonders what personal or financial serendipity drove him back to Dinoland after Carlton's death in 1997, but we're grateful someone has assumed the dinotrack mantle. "It isn't very exciting, but it's interesting," he says.
The photo of my hand in the dinosaur track (behind the title of Me, Me, Me) was taken at Nash Dino Land in September 2008. Amy (then pregnant) and I stopped there on a whim while on a weekend getaway with some friends from Vermont. Here's some other pix from that visit:
I went to college around the corner from here and never heard of it! That photo reminds me of the gripping climax to the classic film Total Recall.
Posted by: Adam Rice | 11/30/2009 at 07:18 AM
Yeah, my sister went to Hampshire, too! I think I actually saw this on a (paper) road map, and was like, why not?
When I was Googling it, I came across this, which seems to be unrelated:
http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/pioneer-valley/dinsoaur-footprints.html
It seems that "Dinosaur Tracks" are the MA state fossil: http://www.statefossils.com/ma/ma.html
Looks like Missouri's is a crinoid (Delocrinus missouriensis): http://www.statefossils.com/mo/mo.html
Posted by: Josh Boelter | 11/30/2009 at 08:09 AM