The Geology of Button Bay State Park

Cover Picture: Selected “buttons” from the clay bank along the beach at Button Bay State Park. (×0.8).
By HARRY W. DODGE, JR.
DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS AND PARKS Perry H. Merrill, Director
VERMONT DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
VERMONT GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Charles G. Doll, State Geologist
1962
By Harry W. Dodge, Jr.
A book of charts by Captain William Chambers contains one entitled “Baye du Roche Fendue (Split-Rock Bay) and the soundings taken in August 1779.” At the upper corner of the chart is the name “Button Mould Bay.” The first appearance of the shortened version, Button Bay, seems to be in Whitelaw’s map of 1796 which was used as the frontispiece of the Census volume, “Heads of Families, Vermont, 1800.”
FIGURE 1 MAP OF WEST-CENTRAL VERMONT AND EASTERN NEW YORK
FIGURE 2
Figure 3. Water-worn concretions seen on the beach of Button Bay State Park. The button-mold shape of some concretions led to the incorporation of the word “Button” in the name Button Bay (Originally, Button-Mould Bay). The chisel portion of the Alpine ice ax head is about 5 inches long.
During the final retreat of the last ice sheet to invade the New England states (some 11,000 to 12,000 years ago) an ice lobe, which occupied the Hudson-Champlain Valley, slowly wasted northward toward the Canadian border. Melt-water derived from the melting glacial ice together with atmospheric water (rain and snow) formed a succession of lakes dammed on the north by the glacial ice. These lakes emptied to the south through the Hudson Valley. This succession of lakes and intermediate lake stages will be discussed in the following paragraphs.