Maritime New England

Maritime New England

The political and economic cultures of New England are closely tied to the sea and to maritime life. From the arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth in 1620 to the present, the coasts and harbors of New England witnessed Revolutionary War marine battles and have served as the home base for great fishing and whaling and shipbuilding industries. Maritime history and marine industries are on display in every state (even Vermont is graced with the 110-mile-long Lake Champlain, which has served as a busy corridor for exploration, commerce, and warfare for 400 years). Among the many places where visitors can see New England’s maritime history on display are Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, whaling museums in Nantucket and New Bedford, the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) and its museum near Boston, lighthouses and lighthouse museums along the coast of Maine, and the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

Massachusetts

Boston / Cambridge region

USS Constitution and USS Constitution Museum – Charlestown
Even for people who have no special interest in naval history, the first view of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), docked at the Charlestown Navy Yard, is truly a thrill because of his antiquity, its grace, and its role in American naval history. The USS Constitution Museum is only a few steps away from the ship. At the museum, interactive galleries take visitors on a 200-year voyage. Discover how Old Ironsides has remained undefeated since 1797; see how sailors climbed 200 foot masts; learn how a wooden hull earned the nickname Old Ironsides. During the summer months USS Constitution makes several underway demonstrations in Boston Harbor and on those days she is open for limited tour hours. Check the ship's website for underway demonstration dates and times.

Hull Lifesaving Museum – Hull
Situated at the mouth of Boston Harbor, the Hull Lifesaving Museum is located in the restored 19th-century Point Allerton U.S. Lifesaving Station, home of the most celebrated lifesavers in the world. Permanent exhibits include the Orientation Room, which traces the history of organized lifesaving; the Boat Room, which displays lifesaving apparatus, including the massive surfboat Nantasket, a rigged beach cart, and a working breeches buoy; the Edward Rowe Snow Room, with lighthouse models and exhibits about Boston Harbor; the Children's Navigation Loft, is a play attic for youngsters with a climb-on sailing ship; and the Observation Cupola, with stunning views of Boston Harbor and the Islands. Open year-round; seasonal operating hours.

Hart Nautical Gallery of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum – Cambridge
The Hart Nautical Gallery was designed as part of MIT’s Pratt School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Today the gallery serves as a showcase for the museum’s ship models as well as examples of ocean engineering technology developed at MIT. The gallery has three parts, including a collection of ship models from ancient to modern; hull half-sections of various boats, ships, submarines, and sail craft; and modern displays changed about every year. Look for full-size anchors on loan from the United States Navy. Open daily, year-round.

Cape Cod region

Cape Cod National Seashore and Cape Cod Lighthouses
The Cape Cod National Seashore is a spectacularly beautiful expanse of beaches, dune lands, and historic structures – lighthouses, museums, and visitor centers – that describe the rugged maritime history of seafaring people living on a peninsula of land that extends 70 miles into the rough Atlantic. From the earliest years of European settlement, the waters around Cape Cod were a hazard to navigation, earning them the nickname “ocean graveyard.” One response to this was construction of lighthouses. The first on the Cape was Highland Light in Truro, [http://lighthouse.cc/highland/index.html] authorized by George Washington in 1796. Other Cape Cod lighthouses worth visiting are Race Point Light in Provincetown [http://www.lighthouse.cc/race/index.html] and Nauset Light in Eastham [http://lighthouse.cc/nauset/index.html]

To learn the dramatic history of this fishing and seafaring region, start at the national seashore’s visitor centers. Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham offers orientation movies, a bookstore, and a museum with displays about salt marsh plants and animals, beach dynamics, and residential and migratory birds. The Province Lands Visitor Center, near Provincetown, has an observation deck with 360-degree view of the Province Lands dunes, the Outer Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. From this location you can see Race Point Ranger Station, Race Point Beach, the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station and the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown.

South of Boston / Plymouth region

New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park – New Bedford
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park preserves and interprets America's 19th-century whaling story. Herman Melville, author of the epic novel Moby-Dick, would recognize many of the 19th-century buildings and sites that make up the park today. Park sites include the New Bedford Whaling Museum (see below); the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum, a 19th-century whaling merchant's home; Seamen's Bethel, a seamen’s house of prayer; and the schooner Ernestina, an 1894 vessel that would become famous as Grand Banks fisher and an Arctic expeditionary vessel. Most sites open year-round.

New Bedford Whaling Museum – New Bedford
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the largest museum in America devoted to the history of the American whaling industry. Through exhibits, publications, and programs, the museum brings to life the whaling era and the history of the local area. It houses the most extensive collection of art, artifacts, and manuscripts pertaining to American whaling in the age of sail from the late 18th century to the early 20th, when sailing ships dominated merchant trade and whaling. Open year-round.

Battleship Cove – Fall River
Battleship Cove , which bills itself at the world’s largest collection of historic naval ships, invites visitors to experience firsthand what it was like to serve on board a Navy warship in World War II. You can sound the diving horn on Submarine Lionfish before you slip below the sea or you can crank the handwheels on Big Mamie's 40-mm guns as you knock enemy planes from the sky. Sail through the Cold War on USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. and learn how the ship's unmanned helicopter hunted Soviet submarines. Or climb on board a high-speed Soviet missile corvette. Anyone for die-hard naval history buff to a casual enthusiast of military hardware will find much to learn here. Open year-round; hours vary seasonally.

Plimoth Plantation – Plymouth
Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum, describes and demonstrates the history of the native Wampanoag and Colonial English peoples of 17th-century Plymouth. Its four major exhibits are the Wampanoag home site, the 1627 English Village, and the Crafts Center, and the Mayflower II, a reproduction modeled after the original Mayflower (located at the Plymouth waterfront). The Wampanoag home site explores Wampanoag culture and history. The 1627 English Village is a re-creation of the farming town built by English colonists. At the Crafts Center, skilled artisans reproduce many of the fascinating and functional objects being used in the village and onboard Mayflower II. Mayflower II has been carefully recreated to show what the original 17th-century vessel was like. Open late March to late November.

U.S. Naval and Shipbuilding Museum -- Quincy
The U.S. Naval and Shipbuilding Museum is home to the USS Salem, the world's only preserved heavy cruiser, which is maintained as she would have been in active service. The museum is located in the former Quincy Fore River Shipyard, once one of the nation's largest shipbuilding enterprises. The museum also contains a Military Archives and Ordnance Collection with a vast collection of military records, documents, and artifacts ranging from the American Revolution to the present. A nearly new exhibit celebrates the Navy SEALs. Open weekends.

The Maritime and Irish Mossing Museum – Scituate
Set in the 1739 residence of Capt. Benjamin James, Scituate’s Maritime & Irish Mossing Museum holds six growing and changing exhibits: The Orientation Room describes the story of the 1898 Portland Gale, Scituate’s many shipwrecks, Thomas W. Lawson’s seven-masted schooner, and more; the Shipwreck Room focuses on the Portland Gale and its effect on Scituate; the Life Saving Room stands as a tribute to early lifesavers with displays of line-throwing guns and tales of rescue systems; the Shipbuilding Room traces the 250-year history of this industry on the North River. There is also a Maritime Museum Store. Call for visiting hours.

Martha’s Vineyard / Nantucket region

Nantucket Whaling Museum – Nantucket
To see the inside workings of early whaling industry and the people who braved the seas to capture the precious whale oil, get to the Nantucket Whaling Museum. First sighted by Europeans in 1602, Nantucket became a part of the Bay Colony of Massachusetts in 1692. Inhabited at the time by people of the Wampanoag tribe, Nantucket developed into a community of farmers and herders. By the 1690s the Nantucketers had begun to organize whaling expeditions in small boats to pursue the right whales that passed close to shore on their annual migrations. Deep-sea whaling began around 1715, a few years after the first sperm whale had been taken by a sloop blown out to sea in a gale. Open seasonally.

Nantucket Life Saving Museum -- Nantucket
Nantucket Life Saving Museum describes the human drama of man's efforts against the relentless sea and is testimony to those early Nantucketers who saved hundreds of lives in and near the island's treacherous shores and shoals. It tells the stories of people pitted against the angry demands of the sea, people who risked their lives to rescue others. Open daily June 15 through the Columbus Day weekend.

North of Boston / Salem /Cape Ann

Peabody Essex Museum -- Salem
Peabody Essex Museum is the nation's oldest continuously operating museum, founded in 1799. The maritime art and history collection, begun in 1803, is the finest in America. It is internationally renowned for holdings of approximately 30,000 paintings, drawings, and prints. The collection also encompasses 20,000 maritime objects dating from the 17th through the early 20th centuries, including ship models, marine decorative arts, tools, weapons, navigational instruments, and ship and yacht plans. Open daily, year-round.

Salem Maritime National Historic Site -- Salem
The historic buildings, wharves, and reconstructed tall ship at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site tell the stories of the sailors, Revolutionary War privateers, and merchants who brought the riches of the Far East to America. The star of the site is the tall ship Friendship. Launched in 1797, Friendship made voyages to India, China, South America, the Caribbean, England, Germany, the Mediterranean, and Russia and eventually was captured by the British sloop of war HMS Rosamond in September 1812. The replica of Friendship at this site was built by the National Park Service using modern materials and construction methods while retaining the appearance of the original ship. Open daily, year-round.

Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center – Gloucester
The Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center is the only working historic waterfront in the Northeast that combines a historic marine railway where wooden vessels are hauled and repaired, a Gulf of Maine aquarium, vessels tracing the fishing history of Gloucester, construction of wooden boats, and educational exhibits. A featured exhibit is the Eleanor, a reproduction of one of the ships that participated in the Boston Tea Party. Other major exhibits are the Boathouse; Sea Pocket Lab, an outdoor aquarium display; Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Exhibit; the Main Pier; Fin Fish Hatchery; Plankton Lab; and a Dive Exhibit. Open daily, Memorial Day to Labor Day; open weekends, Labor Day to Memorial Day.

Cape Ann Historical Museum – Gloucester
The fisheries and maritime galleries at Cape Ann Historical Association Museum reflect Cape Ann’s preeminence in seafaring pursuits. Gloucester’s deep-water harbor attracted a group of Englishmen from the Dorchester Company, who landed in 1623 to fish and to establish a settlement. By the late 19th century, Gloucester was a record-setting port for fisheries under sail. Trade was conducted with Surinam, China, Europe and India. The most lucrative was the trade with the Dutch colony Surinam, which made fortunes for many sea captains. Open Tuesday to Sunday; closed in February.

Custom House Maritime Museum -- Newburyport
Custom House Maritime Museum displays the abundant and interesting maritime heritage of Newburyport, the eastern seacoast’s first major commercial port. The museum’s collection includes objects brought back from the Orient and the South Seas, maritime art, clipper ship models, displays of famous shipwrecks, the history of the Coast Guard, and more. Open year-round, Thursday-Sunday.

Maine

Acadia/ Bar Harbor / Down East region

Maine Maritime Academy – Castine
Maine Maritime Academy , a Maine public college specializing in marine-related programs, welcomes nautical enthusiasts. Visitors are welcome to view the training ship State of Maine, the historic artic schooner Bowdoin, a historic 50-caliber gun used on a merchant ship during World War II, Nutting Memorial Library, the college bookstore, and the main dining room, which is home to many ship models.

Greater Portland and Casco Bay region

Portland Head Light Museum -- Portland
Portland Head Light , the oldest lighthouse in Maine, has guided maritime traffic through the entrance to Portland Harbor for over 200 years. The Museum at Portland Head light, located in the former lighthouse keepers’ quarters, chronicles the history of the lighthouse and Fort Williams, a military outpost for coastal defense next to the light station. The museum contains a number of lighthouse lenses and interpretative displays. The adjacent 90-acre Fort Williams Park offers picnic facilities, hiking, sports and recreation areas, historic fort structures, and ocean views. Open Memorial Day to Columbus Day.

Portland Harbor Museum – South Portland
Located on the grounds of historic Fort Preble and on the shores of Casco Bay, Portland Harbor Museum is adjacent to Spring Point Ledge Light; Bug Light and the Liberty Ship Memorial are less than a mile away. Permanent exhibits at the museum include artifacts from the Snow Squall, the last American clipper ship in existence. Open mid-April to Thanksgiving weekend; hours vary seasonally.

Midcoast region

Maine Lighthouse Museum -- Rockland
The Maine Lighthouse Museum is the home of the largest collection of Fresnel lighthouse lenses and the most important landmark collection of lighthouse artifacts and Coast Guard memorabilia in the United States. The museum has just merged the lighthouse collection from the former Museum of Lighthouse History of Wells, Maine, with its own exhibits in Rockland. The two collections are now on display together. The year 2007 brought the completion of the Maine Discovery Center, the location of the collection's new home and the Lighthouse Depot gift store. The gift store is the source for lighthouse models and miniatures, replicas, clothing, gifts, art, toys, memorabilia, and exclusive regional favorites. Open seasonally.

Maine Maritime Museum – Bath
In its heyday in the 19th century, Percy and Small Shipyard launched 42 schooners, including the Wyoming, the largest wooden ship ever built in America. The shipyard is now the site of the family-oriented Maine Maritime Museum , which collects and interprets materials on the early days of Maine’s shipbuilding industry. From watercraft and lobstering to shipbuilding and sea trade, visitors hear stories about dangerous voyages to distant lands; see how a shipbuilder’s family lived in the 1890s; and discover the wonders of Maine’s maritime culture. Highlights include 10 acres of galleries and exhibits; a life-size sculpture of the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built; seasonal river cruises; and a children’s play area. Open daily, year-round.

Penobscot Marine Museum – Searsport
Founded in 1936, the Penobscot Marine Museum is dedicated to the preservation, documentation, and exhibition of the maritime history of Penobscot Bay and the state of Maine. The principal exhibits at museum focus on the industry of Penobscot Bay in the 19th century and illustrate what it was like to live and work on one of the great square-rigged ships in the last quarter of the 19th century, and to visit China when it truly was exotic. The museum is also known for its collection of fine 19th-century marine art, featuring one of the largest collections of Thomas and James Buttersworth paintings and several by Robert Salmon. Scrimshaw, figureheads, and art and artifacts date from the Great Age of Sail. Open Memorial Day to October 15.

Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum – Port Clyde
Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of the town of St. George and its rich heritage of fishing, quarrying and lumbering. Exhibits examine local quarry history, with tools and photos; lobstering in St. George; and lighthouse memorabilia. A Reference Center contains more than 50 albums that reflect the history of the town, its people, and its industries. A gift shop offers local crafts, arts, clothing, and books. Open May to Columbus Day; hours vary seasonally.

South Coast region

Kittery Historical and Naval Museum – Kittery
Adjacent to the town's municipal offices, the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum offers the visitor a glimpse of the many facets of Maine's oldest town and home to the nation's oldest federal shipyard. Exhibits highlight the maritime influences that have shaped Kittery's past, from the earliest settlers who moved to the mainland from the Isles of Shoals through the development of the shipbuilding trade and the grand hotels of Kittery Point. Attractions at the museum include at 14-foot replica of John Paul Jones's ship Ranger, shipbuilding tools, models, collections of scrimshaw and Bellamy carvings, and a Fresnel lens from Boon Island Light. Open June through Columbus Day.

Katahdin / Moosehead region

Moosehead Maritime Museum – Greenville
The Moosehead Marine Museum in downtown Greenville features the steamship Katahdin, affectionately known as The Kate. The ship was built in 1914 by Bath Iron Works, and was one of five ships that provided transportation services on Moosehead Lake. It traveled from Greenville all the way to the north end of the lake to Seboomook and Northeast Carry, providing services for the logging industry and transporting visitors to sporting camps and the grand hotels of that era. The Kate has since been restored, and now offers steamship tours of Moosehead Lake from Memorial Day through the fall foliage season. The views of Moose Mountain, the Spencer Mountains, and Mount Katahdin are breathtaking from the ship. Open seasonally; call ahead.

Rhode Island

Newport region

Naval War College Museum -- Newport
The history of naval warfare is the principal theme of the Naval War College Museum , which is located in Founders Hall (1820), the original site of the College (1884 - 1889) and a National Historic Landmark. In its broadest application, this encompasses theories and concepts of sea power, international and maritime law, foreign policy formulation, diplomacy, and naval operations. Open year-round; seasonal hours.

Museum of Yachting – Newport
The Museum of Yachting brings to the public eye the beauty and excitement which has led sailors to the water for centuries. It is a lively organization which reflects the international flavor of yachting in Newport, dedicated to the preservation of the traditional skills, documents, vessels, and artifacts which record and describe the history and development of yachting around the world. Open daily, mid-May to October 31.

The Museum of Newport History – Newport
Housed in the 1762 Brick Market, exhibits shown here at the Museum of Newport History bring to life aspects of Newport’s history from the 1600s through the Gilded Age. Decorative arts, artifacts of everyday life, graphics, historic photographs, and audio-visual programs tell Newport's story. The museum contains paintings, Colonial silver, the printing press used by James Franklin, and much more. Open seasonally; call ahead.

East Bay region

Herreshoff Marine Museum and America's Cup Hall of Fame – Bristol
The Herreshoff Marine Museum contains a collection of 35 classic and power yachts from the Golden Age of Yachting to today. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, a major player during yachting's heyday, built eight America's Cup defenders from 1893 to 1934. It also built America's first torpedo. Open: May to October.

Connecticut

Mystic region

USS Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum -- Groton
There’s no getting around it: submarines are eerie and, to many of us, fascinating. At the USS Nautilus & Submarine Force Museum in Groton visitors can board the world's first nuclear-powered submarine and peer into the lives of the men who sail the ocean depths in their "sharks of steel." The museum recounts the development of the silent service from Bushnell's Turtle, used in the Revolutionary War, to modern submarines. Working periscopes, mini-theaters, gift shop. Open year-round except for one week in spring and fall for maintenance; call ahead.

U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Museum -- New London
The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is home to the Eagle, a three-masted barque that is the primary training ship for the Coast Guard Academy. Tucked away on the grounds of the academy, the Coast Guard Museum contains artifacts that span the guard’s 200-year history. Featuring everything from models of a series of early steamships to the 270-foot cutter that plies the waters of today, the craftsmanship captures the changes in ship design over the last 200 years. For figurehead buffs and wood carvers, the museum offers a small but choice collection of carvings. Of special value is the figurehead from the Coast Guard's training ship Eagle. One of the largest figureheads displayed in an American museum, it hangs as if mounted on the bow of a ship. Open daily, year-round; closed weekends during winter, spring, and summer break.

Mystic Seaport – Mystic
Mystic Seaport – The Museum of America and the Sea is among the nation’s leading maritime museums. Visitors can climb aboard historic tall ships, such as the Charles W. Morgan, the world's last wooden whale ship; the L.A. Dunton, an early 20th-century New England fishing vessel; and the 1908 steamboat Sabino, all of them National Historic Landmarks. A re-created 19th-century coastal village is peopled by ship smiths, coopers, woodcarvers, and riggers, all of them craftsmen in the maritime trades. Discover stars in the planetarium, explore exhilarating exhibits and marvel at gardens. The seaport also hosts many seasonal events, from seafood festivals to Christmas tours. Open year-round.

Amistad – New Haven
The schooner Amistad , with a home port in New Haven, is a reproduction of a 19th-century coastal trader that was the centerpiece of a famous slave revolt in 1839. Amistad departed New Haven in June 2007 for a tour to a series of destinations that link historically important ports within the historical theme of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Amistad will return to New Haven in August 2008. In 1839, 53 Africans were kidnapped from West Africa, sold into the transatlantic slave trade, and taken to Havana, Cuba. There, the Africans were transferred to the coastal cargo schooner, La Amistad, for transport to another part of the island. Three days into the journey, a captive led a revolt onboard the ship. After 63 days, La Amistad and the slaves were seized by the a United States Naval Revenue Cutter near Long Island, New York, and towed to Connecticut’s New London harbor. The Africans were held in a jail in New Haven on charges of mutiny and murder. The case took on historic proportions when former President John Quincy Adams successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the captives. In 1841, the 35 surviving Africans were returned to Africa.

Custom House Maritime Museum – New London
Built in 1833, the Custom House remains the oldest operating custom house in the nation. Robert Mills, America's first federal architect, designed the building. A classic Greek Revival granite building, the front doors are made of wood from the USS Constitution. In 1839, U.S. Customs played an important role in the early steps to freedom of Africans brought to New London with the slave ship Amistad. Open daily April through December and by appointment January through March.

Connecticut River Museum -- Essex Village
Located on the waterfront in historic Essex, the Connecticut River Museum is the perfect place to explore the heritage and experience the Connecticut River. For visitors attracted by the river’s marshlands, the museum offers an exceptional vantage point to see bald eagles, migratory birds, and other waterfowl. For visitors intrigued by the history of the river and its people, the museum’s galleries are filled with art and artifacts from dinosaurs to Dutch explorers and from Native American canoes to the first American submarine. Open year-round, Tuesday through Sunday.

Old Lighthouse Museum -- Stonington
Stonington Harbor Light was once the beacon for the many vessels approaching Stonington's harbor from Long Island Sound. The original 30-foot stone tower, which was built on the Point in 1823, became the museum of the Stonington Historical Society in 1927. Six rooms of exhibits testify to the rich and varied history of this coastal region through exhibits depicting the lives of Stonington's fishermen and farmers, merchants and shipbuilders, pottery makers, blacksmiths and many other trades. Visitors of all ages enjoy climbing the old iron steps of the tower for an exhilarating view in all directions. Shoppers may browse in the gift area for unusual books, toys and mementos. Open May through November.

New Hampshire

Seacoast region

Port of Portsmouth Maritime Museum at Albacore Park – Portsmouth
The diesel-electric submarine USS Albacore is the featured exhibit at the Port of Portsmouth Maritime Museum on the shoreline of the Piscataqua River. She is in a permanent dry berth and is accessible at deck level through her pressure hull forward and aft. Albacore is maintained by the Portsmouth Submarine Memorial Association as she looked after her last rebuilding.

Portsmouth Historical Society – Portsmouth
The Portsmouth Historical Society interprets the history of Portsmouth through its diverse collections of furniture, paintings, ceramics, costumes, and maritime artifacts at the John Paul Jones House on Middle Street, which was built in 1758 for Gregory Purcell, a sea captain and merchant. (John Paul Jones, the celebrated naval hero of the American Revolution, spent time in Portsmouth in 1777 and 1781-82 and is believed to have rented a room in this house during 1777.) Portsmouth was well known as a center for the furniture trade in the 18th and 19th centuries and the society displays some exceptional examples of Portsmouth craftsmanship. The collection also includes portraits, glass ceramics, China trade wares, textiles, clothing, needlework and kitchenware. Open seasonally; call ahead.

Portsmouth Harbor Trail – Portsmouth
The Portsmouth Harbour Trail offers a one-hour walk that immerses visitors in the history of this busy waterfront town, The trail passes more than 70 points of scenic and historic significance in Portsmouth. Stops along the trail include Market Square and North Church, the Athenaeum, Market Street, Merchants Row, Moffatt-Ladd House, USS Albacore, Moran Tugboats, Bow Street, View of the Piscataqua River, St. John's Church, Old Portsmouth Brewery, Harbour Place, Memorial Bridge, McIntyre Federal Building, 1817 U.S. Custom House, and the Old County Jail.

Lakes region

New Hampshire Boat Museum – Wolfeboro Falls
The New Hampshire Boat Museum honors the New Hampshire Lakes region's boating heritage and its role in the cultural and social fabric of the Lakes region. The museum focuses on maritime history relating to the boating history of the United States in general and the Lakes region in particular. The museum features many examples of vintage mahogany and antique boats. There are runabouts, race-boats, canoes, guide boats, and sail boats. Open Memorial Day to Columbus Day.

Vermont

Northern Vermont region

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum – Vergennes
The Champlain Valley's cultural history began nearly 11,300 years ago, when Paleoindian hunter-gatherers moved into the region. Native Americans have been living in the Champlain Valley continuously from that time to the present. Since its discovery by Europeans, the Champlain Valley has played an important role in North American history. The prominence of this area is due to the north-south corridor that Lake Champlain creates between the St. Lawrence Valley and the heart of the North American continent. The lake has served as a highway for of ideas, communication, commerce, and people. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum brings to life the stories of Lake Champlain and its people through nautical exploration, hands-on exhibits, and learning adventures. Visitors to the museum can view a large collection of original small watercraft, learn about wooden shipwrecks in North America, climb aboard the full-scale working Revolutionary War gunboat replica Philadelphia II and learn about the life of citizen soldiers in the Champlain Valley in 1776, and much more. Open mid-May to mid-October.