Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Encyclopedia
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) is non-profit museum located in Ferrisburgh, Vermont
Ferrisburgh, Vermont
Ferrisburgh is a town in Addison County, Vermont, United States. It was founded June 24, 1762. The population was 2,657 at the 2000 census. The northern part of the town is referred to as North Ferrisburgh, with both sometimes spelled Ferrisburg....

, USA. Its mission is to preserve and share the history and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 of Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...

. As a maritime museum
Maritime museum
A maritime museum is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water...

 specializing in archaeology, LCMM studies the dozens of shipwrecks discovered in Lake Champlain and plays a major role in the management of those cultural resources. Through the preservation and interpretation of those and other artifacts, the museum strives to tell the story of the people and culture of the Lake Champlain region.

History

Founded in 1985, the museum took up residence in an old stone schoolhouse on the grounds of the Basin Harbor Club, a private resort situated on the lake’s shoreline, and opened to the public in 1986. Since then, LCMM has grown to include 18 buildings at two sites housing collections and exhibits, a boat shop and small shipyard, blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 facilities, an archaeological conservation laboritory, museum store, offices, and lecture space.

A major physical expansion occurred in 2001 when the Burlington Shipyard was opened in the city of Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....

, some 20 miles north of LCMM’s main campus. The following year the museum acquired the Capt. White Place, a c.1815 ship captain’s home in Burlington, and in 2004 moved its Burlington offices and exhibits from the shipyard into the Lyman Building, a city-owned facility on the Burlington waterfront.

Programming

In addition to underwater archaeological research and traditional gallery-style exhibits, LCMM conducts educational, boatbuilding, and boating programs, and hosts lectures, annual juried photography shows, and historical re-enactment events. An active education department offers classes ranging from on-water exploration to traditional crafts, and staff educators conduct wintertime outreach to area schools, visiting students in their classrooms and helping them learn about the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, 19th century maritime commerce, and Lake Champlain’s archaeological resources.

Each winter, area youth organizations partner with the museum to build either a Cornish pilot gig
Cornish pilot gig
The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat, built of Cornish narrow leaf elm, long with a beam of four feet ten inches.It is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back as far as the late 17th century.The original...

 or a Whitehall pulling boat. This program is intended to help teenage students learn important life skills and develop an improved self-image through the collaborative building process. Those boats are then used in classes and community rowing programs during the boating season.

Replica fleet

A significant part of the museum’s effort to understand the region’s maritime past is its fleet of replica vessels. Historians and archaeologists at the museum believe that the recreation of historic vessel types offers a unique understanding of the vessels, their crews, and the society of a given era while allowing the public to experience history in a very tangible way.

The smallest of these, and the first replica built at the museum, is the Perseverence, a boat of a type used during the French & Indian War, known as a Bateau
Bateau
A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes...

. The successful completion of that project in 1986 encouraged the museum and its supporters to build a replica of a revolutionary war gunboat, the Philadelphia II. Launched in 1991, that vessel serves today as a focal point for interpreting the British and American campaigns on the Lake in 1776, and is an accurate reproduction of the original vessel which was sunk in combat at the Battle of Valcour Island
Battle of Valcour Island
The naval Battle of Valcour Island, also known as the Battle of Valcour Bay, took place on October 11, 1776, on Lake Champlain. The main action took place in Valcour Bay, a narrow strait between the New York mainland and Valcour Island...

. It was raised from lake's bottom in 1935 and is currently preserved at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

.
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The flagship of the LCMM fleet is the canal schooner Lois McClure. The product of a partnership between the museum and the Lake Champlain Transportation Company
Lake Champlain Transportation Company
The Lake Champlain Transportation Company provides car and passenger ferry service at four points on Lake Champlain in the United States. From 1976 to 2003, it was owned by Burlington, Vermont, businessman Raymond C. Pecor, Jr. who is Chairman of the company's board...

, this 88-foot replica was launched in July 2004 after three years of construction in Burlington. Its design is based on the General Butler, a schooner wrecked in Burlington Harbor on December 9, 1876, and the O.J. Walker, another sailing canal boat which sank in 1895.

Events

In 2005 the Lois McClure toured the lake and the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

, bringing the story of sailing canal boats and the so-called Northern Waterway to residents of the Hudson Valley and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. A similar tour was carried out in 2007 on the New York State Barge Canal, the present-day incarnation of the Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

. Visitors were free to board and explore the vessel for no charge and talk to crewmembers about the boat and the history of the waterway.

Some of the museum’s regular annual special events are rowing competitions that are held in the spring and fall, and the Rabble In Arms living history weekend. On that weekend historical re-enactors gather on the museum grounds to bring to life a significant event from the lake’s past, and each year a different event is chosen. There is also an annual small boat show, and exhibits of photos taken by both amateur and professional photographers from around the region.
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