A petrologic and paleocurrent study of the Upper Ordovician Schenectady-Frankfort Formations does not support the commonly held supposition that the sediments were derived from the Taconic region of New England-New York.

The grain-size distribution, mineralogy, and paleocurrent direction of the Schenectady Formation indicate a complex source area south of the Mohawk Valley rather than an easterly source.

It is proposed that the source area for the Schenectady-Frankfort Formations was in the Reading Prong region of northern New Jersey-southeastern New York. It is also proposed that a southward-plunging north-south sedimentary barrier prevented the sediments on the east from penetrating as far west as the Schenectady basin.

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