Aptucxet Trading Post Museum

Aptucxet Trading Post Museum Review

A monument to the birth of commerce in the New World, this museum was erected on the foundation of the original trading post. Here, in 1627, Plimoth Plantation leaders established a way station between the Native American encampment at Great Herring Pond 3 mi to the northeast, Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam to the south, and English colonists on Cape Cod Bay. The Native Americans traded furs; the Dutch traded linen cloth, metal tools, glass beads, sugar, and other staples; and the Pilgrims traded wool cloth, clay beads, sassafras, and tobacco (which they imported from Virginia). Wampum (beads made from polished shells) was the medium of exchange.

Inside the museum, 17th-century cooking utensils hang from the original brick hearth; beaver and otter skins, arrowheads, tools, and tomahawks are displayed throughout. Also on the grounds are a gift shop in a Dutch-style windmill, a saltworks, herb and wildflower gardens, a picnic area overlooking the canal, and a small Victorian railroad station built for the sole use of President Grover Cleveland, who had a summer home in Bourne. To get here, cross the Bourne Bridge; then take the first right from the rotary onto Trowbridge Road.