We're literally opening the pages of a history book that's never been read. At the museum and online, the public can vote on the fate of one of the highest profile finds - the 1997 discovery of one of Benedict Arnold's gunboats. There are commercial sailing vessels with the living quarters intact, with dishes and silverware in the drawers. The potential for scholarship here is big. The museum offers many educational opportunities.
People can take boat-building workshops, then paddle away with their own birch bark canoes.
They can learn to sail or enroll in Kayaking 101. In another program, called Liberty makers, youths who don't perform well in traditional classroom environments build sleek, 32-foot pilot gigs, learning about everything from history and mathematics to carpentry and teamwork. When there are enough of these longboats, says Tichonuk, participants will race them. Slated for Sept. 23-24, the event will take onlookers back to the days when Americans still thought of Benedict Arnold as a good guy. Costumed from his cocked hat to his woolen leggings, first mate Jonathan Blake, alias Len Ruth, explains that the bundles of sticks tied to the sides were intended to protect the crew from enemy gunfire coming from shore.