CUDDEBACKVILLE, NY — The Neversink Valley Museum of History & Innovation presents its first installment of its History Talk Series on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:30 pm, featuring Dr. Eugene J. Boesch, who will give a talk titled, “Understanding Past Native American Cultures in the Hudson Valley Through Archaeology.” It will be held at the D&H Canal Visitor’s Center, 58 Hoag Rd. (just off Route 209). Light refreshments will be served.

This lecture covers the latest discoveries overturning long-held ideas about the identity of the first Americans. It has long been believed that prehistoric Eurasians, who migrated to North America between 15,000 and 16,000 years ago over a land bridge crossing the Bering Strait, were the first Paleoindians. However, finds by archeologists over the past two decades offer evidence that Paleoindians were in the Americas as far back as 50,000 years ago.

Scientists also had surmised that the Eurasian migrants caused the extinction of large ice age mammals in North America. But there’s also evidence that a natural disaster caused these animals to die out and may have led to the demise of the Paleoindian culture as well.

Visit neversinkmuseum.org or call 845/754-8870.