7/14/12. We spent the weekend in Massachusetts visiting Catherine at her summer job break. On the advice of her colleague, we decided to go to Lowell National Historic Park. It was a great choice!
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| Catherine and Jason try out the Trolley in the Visitors Center |
We arrived at 9:30 in the morning and found the Visitor's Center easily. We booked a couple of tours for later in the day, visited the exhibits, the gift shop (and bought some fabric made at the park) and waited for the overview film about the park to begin.
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| The real trolley driver! |
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| Lock and guardhouse where we started our canal boat tour |
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| Factory along the canal |
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| Our canal boat tour guide and pilot |
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| Dam on the canal to regulate water flow |
According to the National Park Service, the creation of Lowell National Historical Park in 1978 acknowledged Lowell’s significant
contribution to the American Industrial Revolution. Lowell’s culture, environment, and historic
manufacturing economy are influential pieces of our national heritage
which ultimately changed American life. The city and its textile mills
represent the first large-scale planned industrial city in American
history. 19th-century Lowell ushered in a new era of technical
innovation in textile manufacturing, gave rise to the modern
corporation, and developed one of America’s earliest urban working
classes. Historically Lowell was heralded as the “Venice of the United
States” for its extensive, technologically advanced canal system.
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| Gate which was lowered to protect against flooding |
We started the morning off by watching some skits created by high school students that recreated key issues in Lowell history. While we waited for our canal boat tour, we explored the trolley and street car and got park cancellation stamps at both. The tour started on the trolley which brought us to the dock where we boarded our boat. We traveled along the canals and got to experience the locks as our tour guide explained the history of water power and the mills. The hour and a half went by quickly and was very interesting.
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Looms at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum
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| Great food at Life Alive Restaurant |
Next we stopped for lunch at
"Life Alive", an unusual and terrific vegetarian restaurant. We had trouble choosing what to eat because there were so many appealing items!
After lunch we walked to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum. Here there were actual looms operating and we spent a great deal of time figuring out how they worked. We were really fascinated by the engineering and had a hard time tearing ourselves away.
We left a little bit of time to visit the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit before heading back to the Visitors' Center for our 2:30 tour: Controlling Nature - "The River Transformed Exhibit". This tour gave us more information about the engineering of the machines and how the canals provided power to the factories.
After our tour, we walked down to the Lower Locks to get a brand new cancellation stamp they just started using. We had a wonderful visit with a Ranger and Volunteer who let us walk out onto the canal locks and get a good view of how it all worked. Then we rushed over to the Guard Locks in our car to catch the Rangers before they left for the day so we could get the cancellation stamp we missed during our canal tour. One of the Rangers graciously went back into the guardhouse to get us the stamp. We ended up with a total of 9 stamps for this location and we were tired and very satisfied with all we learned and experienced.
We would highly recommend this park - we spent 7 hours and there were things we didn't get to do, or to spend enough time on. It would make a great weekend trip!
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| Jason checking out how the engineering of the loom works |
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| Catherine pretending to be a Mill Girl |
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| Ranger giving The River Tranformed Tour |
