Aptucxet Trading Post Museum
Aptucxet is where to go to learn about shopping, Pilgrim-style. The Algonquin name means “little trap in the river,” and the site is where the Manomet and Scusset rivers met, making it a convenient trading place for Native Americans. Historical records indicate that in 1627, the Pilgrims began using the site for early trade with the Wampanoag tribe and the Dutch. The building used for the small museum here is a replica of the Pilgrim trading post and is erected on the original foundation. Excavated in the 1920s, the foundation is considered the earliest remains of a Pilgrim building. Also on the museum grounds you can see a replica salt works built by students at the nearby Upper Cape Regional Technical School. Salt-making was a big early industry on the Cape. The first salt-making was done by evaporating seawater placed in large boilers over fire, but after the Revolutionary War, the process was refined and saltworks were built using large wooden vats and solar evaporation. Saltworks used to line the shores of Cape Cod, the most extensive saltworks being on Mashnee Island (those were destroyed by hurricane in 1835). Also on the grounds of the museum is the tiny Victorian-style Gray Gables Train Depot, which was built as the personal station for President Grover Cleveland during his second term in the White House (1893–1896). Cleveland had a summer home at Gray Gables in Bourne, chosen for its proximity to rich fishing grounds; the train depot was outfitted with a direct telegraph line to Washington, D.C. The depot was moved to the trading post grounds in 1976.
Aptucxet is where to go to learn about shopping, Pilgrim-style. The Algonquin name means “little trap in the river,” and the site is where the Manomet and Scusset rivers met, making it a convenient trading place for Native Americans. Historical records indicate that in 1627, the Pilgrims began using the site for early trade with the Wampanoag tribe and the Dutch. The building used for the small museum here is a replica of the Pilgrim trading post and is erected on the original foundation. Excavated in the 1920s, the foundation is considered the earliest remains of a Pilgrim building. Also on the museum grounds you can see a replica salt works built by students at the nearby Upper Cape Regional Technical School. Salt-making was a big early industry on the Cape. The first salt-making was done by evaporating seawater placed in large boilers over fire, but after the Revolutionary War, the process was refined and saltworks were built using large wooden vats and solar evaporation. Saltworks used to line the shores of Cape Cod, the most extensive saltworks being on Mashnee Island (those were destroyed by hurricane in 1835). Also on the grounds of the museum is the tiny Victorian-style Gray Gables Train Depot, which was built as the personal station for President Grover Cleveland during his second term in the White House (1893–1896). Cleveland had a summer home at Gray Gables in Bourne, chosen for its proximity to rich fishing grounds; the train depot was outfitted with a direct telegraph line to Washington, D.C. The depot was moved to the trading post grounds in 1976.
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