Bear Mountain Trailside Museums & Zoo

There are four museums at Trailside-all built of native granite: The Herpetology House is home to a variety of native turtles, snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders and skinks as well as many species of fish. The Nature Study Museum houses specimens originally collected by the Museum of Natural History to educate people about animal identification. Geology Museum introduces visitors to the geologic formations of the Hudson Highlands and industries that have tapped natural resources. The History Museum provides an introduction to human occupation of the region from the earliest Native American settlers to European and their descendants who made the area their home. The History Museum houses a collection of Daniel Carter Beard (1850-1941). Beard was an illustrator, author, social reformer and youth leader. He was an illustrator for authors, including Mark Twain and Ernest Crosby. Beard founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, and subsequently merged it with the Boy Scouts of America in 1910.