FRDEITEN
Villages / Valais / Saint-Maurice district / Vieux-Emosson

Vieux-Emosson

Site Canton of Valais · District: Saint-Maurice · Uninhabited site (municipality of Finhaut)
Part of the municipality of Finhaut
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Vieux-Emosson

Vieux-Emosson is a high mountain area shared between Finhaut and Salvan, with the lake and dam of the same name, above the Lac d'Emosson. The name Emosson remains unexplained.[7]

Founding of Vieux-Emosson

Vieux-Emosson was a summer alpine pasture of the municipality of Finhaut, like Emosson. In the early 1950s the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) built a dam here, as hydroelectricity overtook the traditional economy. Far older, the fossil footprints date from a time when reptiles walked on the beach of a shallow sea, before the Alps formed.[1][6]

History of Vieux-Emosson

1952. The SBB start collecting water from the Vallon d'Émaney, then build the Vieux-Emosson dam.[5]

1955. The dam is completed, a 55 m arch-gravity structure at about 2'200 m.[3][4]

1976. On 23 August, at the end of a particularly hot summer, the melting snowfield uncovers footprints found by the French geologist Georges Bronner.[2][1]

1983. On 9 November the Valais cantonal government protects the site. Damaging the footprints, taking rock samples or leaving rubbish is forbidden.[2][1]

1998. The site becomes a geotope of national importance. The municipality of Finhaut lays out an educational trail with support from the Espace Mont-Blanc.[1][2]

2008. The Italian palaeontologist Marco Avanzini spots a track on a detached block, which allows the trackmaker to be identified.[2]

2015. The trail is modernised with the Natural History Museum of Geneva, the canton of Valais and the Confederation.[2]

2016. In July the raising of the dam to 76.5 m (65 m according to another source) for the Nant de Drance pumped-storage plant is completed. The reservoir grows from 11.2 to 24.6 million m³.[4][3]

Historic sites in Vieux-Emosson

Vieux-Emosson dam. SBB dam converted into an arch dam when it was raised. Its lake now serves as the upper reservoir of the Nant de Drance plant.[3][4]

Footprint site. A protected area of 168.5 ha at about 2'400 m, above the lake. An information centre offers guided tours in August.[1]

Remains in Vieux-Emosson

Fossil footprints. Tracks of five to nine species on gently sloping quartzite slabs, over 230 million years old (over 240 million according to another source). Presented as dinosaur tracks, they are also attributed to archosaur reptiles older than true dinosaurs, of the Isochirotherium type, about 1.5 m long. They are considered the oldest fossil vertebrate tracks in Switzerland.[1][2]

Sources

  1. État du Valais, sites naturels protégés, « Traces de dinosaures du Vieux-Emosson »
  2. Vallée du Trient Tourisme, « Archosaur footprint trail »
  3. Commune de Finhaut, « Dam of Vieux-Emosson »
  4. Gruner, « Heightening of the Vieux Emosson arch dam »
  5. VerticAlp Emosson, « CFF Châtelard-Barberine hydroelectricity museum »
  6. Commune de Finhaut, « Finhaut en histoire »
  7. geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux (coordonnées)

Other villages near Vieux-Emosson

Missing information, or do you have a source? Suggest a correction or addition. Every submission is checked before it's published.

Suggest a change