An artifact nearly as old as time itself has a home at Gilboa-Conesville Central School.
It’s a 385-million-year-old tree fossil the New York City Department of Environmental Protection donated to the school Friday morning.
And the fossil is one of the oldest ever found.
The brown, roundish fossil, roughly 400-500 pounds, now sits in a small garden near the school’s entrance, and students will see its evidence of local history every day.
A plaque donated by the American Legion describes the fossil.
Workers uncovered the fossil during reconstruction of the Gilboa Dam at the Schoharie Reservoir in 2010.
The tree fossil is one of many found since the Gilboa Dam was built in the 1920s. For years, fossils have been commonplace in the area, according to Gilboa-Conesville Superintendent Ruth Reeve, who attended G-CCS as a student.
“We used to find them and just toss them away,” she said Friday.
But over the years, evidence of ancient life grew in importance, and Gilboa fossils have come to be recognized as among the oldest in the world.
“I hope that by having a fossil here, our students will make the connection between what they learn in the classroom and seeing the fossil up close,” Ms. Reeve said.
DEP wanted to donate the fossil to the school before this but didn’t have the equipment to move it, according to Adam Bosch of DEP.
A crew from Southland Contracting Inc., which is working on the dam, moved the fossil into place just before the donation Friday morning.
“Southland was integral in getting this done,” Mr. Bosch said.
When they lived, the trees that eventually became fossils were several dozen feet high and resembled spiky paintbrushes, according to information provided by Mr. Bosch.
Gilboa’s fossilized forest was first found by Samuel Lockwood, a minister who found the stumps in 1869 after a flood.
Many more were found during excavations of quarries for the building of the Gilboa Dam in 1921.
In the dam reconstruction recently, workers excavated one of the quarries again, finding more fossils––including the one at the school––and giving scientists another opportunity to study them.
The nearby Gilboa Historical Society Museum has a display of fossils. Those who want to learn more can visit www.gilboafossils.org.