by Larry Chowning –
Everything from a recreated colonial tavern, to boats and canoes, to a vintage cannon bring the past alive at Yorktown museum, grounds
Yorktown is not just about the American Revolution, its Watermen’s Museum is one of the finest such museums around and a must “sea” for those who have an interest in Chesapeake Bay culture.
The museum was founded in 1981 and initially occupied the buildings left behind when Hornsby Oil Company closed. In 1986, co-founders Marian Hornsby Bowditch and Nancy Laing Cole Laurier were responsible for acquiring the current buildings and moving them from Gloucester. The main building is a replica of Colonial Williamsburg’s Raleigh Tavern.
The museum’s displays educate visitors on the diverse history of Yorktown, York River and the Chesapeake Bay. Its indoor exhibits provide a timeline showing how people made their living on the water, including the Algonquin-speaking people, European colonists, military and professional civilian sailors, and commercial fishermen.
There is a three-log canoe and a one-log dugout canoe on the grounds along with tools and artifacts that speak to the culture of log canoe building. Just down the road, Poquoson was a center of Virginia log canoe building on the bay before deadrise and cross-planked boats came along.
The museum’s modern exhibits include the evolution of workboats and the importance they played in the local economy. In its newest exhibit, you can get a sense of how climate change is negatively affecting the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It features “The Resiliency Project,” which are three ceramic vases that explain the threats, hope, and solutions regarding human impacts on the environment.
“We try to have at least one new exhibit every year to keep the locals coming in to see us,” said president of the museum Steve Ormsby, who provided a walking tour of the museum.
There is an active boatbuilding crew at the museum and inside the boat shop is a completed flat-bottom skiff. The skiff will be raffled off at the Urbanna Oyster Festival on Nov. 3 and 4. The Watermen’s Museum is an annual attendee of the Urbanna Oyster Festival’s Thursday Education Day conducted at the Urbanna Town Marina.
The museum’s latest acquisition is an original gunning sneak boat used in duck hunting. Sneak boats were used to sneak up on a raft of ducks and geese in the days when market hunting for waterfowl was legal on Chesapeake Bay. The 1918 Migratory Bird Act made it illegal to hunt wild ducks and geese for commercial markets.
“We plan to build an outside, roofed facility for the new boat,” said Ormsby. “This is a unique and unusual acquisition and we are real excited about it.”
A cannon of colonial vintage that was dredged up from the bottom of the Rappahannock River in the 1920s is mounted on a carriage built by volunteers.
The 2.5-acre grounds of the museum include a working boat shop, the Yorktown gristmill, a performance stage, pier and natural beach areas, which give students and adults the opportunity to experience the past through docent-led discussions.
Other outdoor artifacts include a tobacco press, The Virginia State Navy Gunboat Henry, a stockyard and pillory, as well as a Navy Coast Guard lightship bell.
The museum hosts school field trips, in which students are taught how to make canoes, burn logs, and experience maritime trades like rope making, blacksmithing, and woodworking. They offer one-week pirate, archaeology, boatbuilding, environmental, and maritime trades camps for kids.
Musicians are also often docked on the museum’s outdoor boat stage throughout the year to sing folk music and popular sea shanties to guests.
The museum’s carriage house – an event space overlooking the York River – can be reserved for weddings, birthday parties or company retreats. Educational programs are also held in the carriage house.
The Watermen’s Museum is open from April to December. “We have tried over the years to present an accurate and diverse history of Yorktown and York River,” said Ormsby.
If You Go
- The Watermen’s Museum is open from April to December on Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; Tuesday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays.
- Admission is free for children 5 and younger; 62 and older, $4; adults, $5; and students, $4. Groups of 10 or more are $3 per person.
- The Watermen’s Museum offers school and civic group educational field trips. During the summer there are special children’s camps and programs that touch on the subjects of archaeology, boatbuilding, nature — and even the history of pirates!
- Yoga can be practiced on the first and third Mondays of each month. There are also free folk jams at 5:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month in the museum’s carriage house.
- The museum is located at 309 Water St. in Yorktown; its phone number is 757-887-2641.
