This period begins with the geology of the Little Falls area, continues with the earliest human movements and glaciers that impacted the Mohawk Valley, before moving on to the earliest New World developments.
NOTE: Blue icons identify events that can be referenced at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum.
On the hills to the north and south of the gorge forming the Mohawk Valley at Little Falls, NY, you might find a small clear sparkling stone called “the Little Falls diamond.”
Little Falls Diamonds Collection
Humans cross the Beringia land bridge into North and then South America.
Lake Iroquois, an enlargement of Lake Ontario, blocked by a glacier along the St. Lawrence, emptied through the Mohawk Valley at the Little Falls cataract.
Norse settle briefly in Newfoundland. Around 1075 they are believed to have landed on the North American coast at what was deemed “Vinland.”
Cahokia, a city of 20,000 people near present day St. Louis, larger than then London, was home to the “Mississippians” a broad group of Native American tribes.
Beginning of the European Age of Discovery.
Population estimates in the New World before European contact may be as high as 112 million people.
Little Falls Historical Society Museum
319 South Ann Street
Little Falls, NY (Get directions)