Adirondack Museum bonus: boats, boats, and more boats!

As we drove around the Adirondacks earlier this month, I probably saw more cars with boats of various kinds atop them than I'd ever seen anywhere. Even around here, where we have lots of nice rivers. Up there, though, they have rivers and lakes and ponds, lots of them. To refresh your memory...

...these statistics refer to the Adirondack Park that is pretty much contiguous with the whole mountain range. 

So boating of many kinds has always been a major activity in this area. To celebrate this great tradition, the Adirondack Museum had a whole building devoted to boats and boating, and it was the highlight of our visit there for me.

From this lovely sailboat that's suspended in the Museum's entrance building...

...to an impressive array of guideboats that are the signature craft of the area. We learned a lot about these interesting vessels, even getting to watch a boat builder working on a new one:

The craftsmanship in all of the boats on display was exquisite. Here's a closeup of a guideboat interior...doesn't this wood look luscious?!

Here are a couple more examples of guideboats:

a splendid wooden guideboat

a more primitive example (note the photo on the wall in the background)

As ubiquitous as these boats must be in Adirondack boating history, at least one of the quotes on display in the exhibit might be considered fighting words to our paddling friends:

(I highlighted another interesting set of quotes in this Wordless Wednesday post a few weeks back.)

Other types of watercraft were also on display, even some that were motorized:

Other boat-related artifacts were om the exhibit, too, like this handsome "cruising" trophy. I loved the little silver canoe that apparently came with it:

But my favorite item wasn't even in the boat exhibit building but in with the sleds and carriages. It's a "boat carrying wagon," typical of "about 1890," according to the museum information. The wagon frame is original but the boat rack was "carefully reproduced."

I think we should invest in one of these to carry our boats to the river in style!