The Emily Dickinson Trail, one of the Town’s “Literary Trails,” follows Amherst College land next to the Fort River. The river next crosses under West Street and runs westerly through Hadley to the Connecticut River.
The Fort River cut its meandering course into sand, silt and mud left behind when glacial Lake Hitchcock drained 13,000 years ago. The process of meander formation is discussed in The Dynamic Modern Connecticut River exhibit at the Beneski Museum of Natural History.