3 Best Sights in Pawtucket, The Blackstone Valley

Concord and Lexington may legitimately lay claim to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called "the shot heard 'round the world" in 1775, but Pawtucket's Slater Mill provided the necessary economic shot in the arm in 1793. This National Historic Landmark, the first successful water-powered spinning mill in America, touched off an industrial revolution that helped secure America's sovereign independence in the early days of the republic. The museum complex explores this era with U.S. National Park Service rangers and expert interpretive guides, who demonstrate fiber-to-yarn and yarn-to-fabric processes and hand-operated and powered machinery and discuss how industrialization forever changed this nation. It's peaceful just to watch the water wheel turn and to contemplate how much we owe to "Slater the Traitor."

The surviving redbrick buildings of the former Hope Webbing Company's textile mill now hold artists' studios, galleries (including the always-interesting Giraffes and Robots), shops, an escape room, the Met music venue, and the marvelously retro BreakTime Bowl and Bar duckpin bowling alley. The popular Pawtucket Indoor Farmer's Market is held Wednesday from 4--7 pm.

Within the stately grounds of this park along the Ten Mile River are picnic tables, tennis courts, a playground, dog park, bike path, and a disc golf course. The park's Looff Carousel, built by Charles I. D. Looff in 1895, has 44 horses, three dogs, a lion, a camel, a giraffe, and two chariots that are the earliest examples of the Danish immigrant's work—rides operate spring through fall and cost 50¢. The Haunted Tunnel in the park is a popular Halloween attraction.