Fisk Quarry Preserve

Around 480 million years ago, in the Ordovician period, the land that is now Isle La Motte lay near the equator under a shallow tropical sea. In that warm water, colonies of early reef-building animals, sponges, snails, corals, and squid-like cephalopods, grew and died and piled up over millions of years into a reef.

The reef hardened into limestone, and the slow drift of continents carried it thousands of miles north to Vermont. When quarriers cut into the stone, they sliced through the ancient reef, and its fossils, coils, whorls, and honeycomb shapes, are visible in the walls and ledges today.

The dark, fossil-flecked stone of Isle La Motte, often called black marble though it is technically limestone, was prized for its beauty and durability. It was quarried here for well over a century and shipped out to become floors, facades, and monuments in buildings across the United States.

Fisk Quarry was one of the island's working pits. When quarrying ended, the excavation slowly filled with water, and in the 1990s a local effort protected it as a preserve, recognizing that its walls held a scientific treasure far older than any building the stone had raised.

Isle La Motte is the smallest and least developed of the Champlain Islands, a place of stone walls, hayfields, apple trees, and lake horizons. Along with the reef, it holds St. Anne's Shrine, on the site where French soldiers built a fort and Vermont's first European settlement in 1666.

The Abenaki traveled and fished these island waters long before that, and the Abenaki remain part of Vermont's present. The island's slow pace and its ancient stone make it feel a little outside of ordinary time.

Late spring through fall is the time to visit, when the trails are dry and the quarry pool mirrors the sky. Summer is peaceful and green, and autumn brings quiet color to the island's back roads.

The preserve is a warm-season nature site and effectively closes for the deep winter, when the island empties out and the lake ices over. Any visit rewards a slow, attentive look at the stone underfoot.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

The Fisk Quarry Preserve, on Isle La Motte in the Champlain Islands of Vermont, protects part of the Chazy Reef, one of the oldest known fossil coral reefs in the world, preserved in the rock of a historic former quarry. Hundreds of millions of years ago, this area lay beneath a tropical sea, and the ancient reef and its fossilized creatures are exposed in the quarry walls and stone, making it a site of global geological significance. The peaceful preserve offers trails and interpretation where visitors can see the remarkable fossils and learn about this ancient reef and the historic quarrying of the beautiful local stone. With its ancient fossil reef, the Fisk Quarry Preserve offers a fascinating destination in Vermont.

You can see fossils of the ancient Chazy Reef, one of the oldest fossil coral reefs in the world, exposed in the walls and stone of the historic quarry, walk the peaceful preserve trails, read interpretive information about the ancient sea and reef, and appreciate the history of quarrying the beautiful local marble-like stone. The remarkable ancient fossils, the sense of deep geologic time, and the tranquil preserve are the draws, offering a fascinating and reflective experience. Seeing a reef hundreds of millions of years old is awe-inspiring. With its ancient fossils, the Fisk Quarry Preserve offers an engaging visit in Vermont.

The Chazy Reef is significant because it is one of the oldest known fossil coral reefs in the world, formed hundreds of millions of years ago when the area that is now Isle La Motte lay beneath a warm tropical sea, and it records an important early chapter in the history of life and reef-building on Earth. The exceptionally preserved fossils of ancient reef creatures give scientists and visitors a rare window into this deep past. This global geological importance makes the Fisk Quarry Preserve and the nearby fossil sites remarkable destinations in Vermont.

The mild months of late spring through fall offer the most pleasant weather for exploring the outdoor preserve and its fossils, with fall bringing lovely foliage to the island setting, while the site is a quiet natural area best enjoyed in fair weather. Because it is a preserve that may have seasonal access or interpretation, checking any current details before you go is wise. For the most pleasant weather to explore the ancient fossils, aim for late spring through fall at the Fisk Quarry Preserve in Vermont.

The Fisk Quarry Preserve is on Isle La Motte in the Champlain Islands of Vermont, near the Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve, within reach of St. Anne's Shrine, the Champlain Islands state parks, and the Lake Champlain island region. That makes the Fisk Quarry Preserve a fascinating stop to combine with the Goodsell Ridge Fossil Preserve, St. Anne's Shrine, and the other attractions of the Champlain Islands on a visit to Vermont.