Always Wear A Helmet

Aptucxet Trading Post Museum
Open from May to Mid-October
Weekdays from 10 to 5 and Sundays from 2 to 5
(Closed Mondays except July and August, Memorial Day,
Labor Day and Columbus Day)

Aptucxet Trading Post was the first known commercial enterprise in English-speaking North America.  In 1626 leaders of Plimoth Plantation signed a contract with their English backers agreeing to assume the colony's debts in return for a monopoly on trade with the area's Native Americans; as the first such contract on record, it earned for Aptucxet the title "Cradle of American Commerce."  Established in 1627 by Pilgrims from Plimoth Plantation, the building which stood on this site served for several decades as a place to trade with the Dutch from New York and barter with the Native Americans of Cape Cod and the Wampanoag Federation.

The trading post was established where it was for several reasons.  Before the construction of the Cape Cod Canal, two small rivers separated by a short portage served as a safe short cut from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. While the Manomet River flowed into Buzzards Bay and thus gave access by water to Dutch New Amsterdam, the Scusset River fed Cape Cod Bay.  The Native American encampment closest to Plimoth Plantation was located at Herring Run, about three miles up the Manomet River from Aptucxet (about midway between the present Bourne and Sagamore Bridges).

Though not avid mariners, the Pilgrims could and did sail along the Cape Cod Bay shore and up the Scusset River to the portage.  There they carried their goods across to the Manomet, and in a small boat, to Aptucxet where the deeper waters allowed Dutch ships to anchor.

To expedite the resulting three-way trading, De Rasiere suggested the use of wampum as a medium of exchange - the first such use of the polished bits of quahog shells. 

From the tiny acorn that was Aptucxet grew the mighty forest of American trade and commerce we know today.

	Map to left depicts the area when the trading post came into being in 1627.
	Also on the grounds is a small Victorian railroad station (Gray Gables) built by the Old Colony Railroad in 1892 for the exclusive use of President Grover Cleveland who owned a summer home in Bourne.

At the entrance to the grounds is a Dutch-style windmill built at his home "Crows Nest" in Buzzards Bay by actor-artist Joseph Jefferson in the late 19th century.  Jefferson, well known for his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle, used the windmill as his art studio. To the rear of the trading post and adjacent to the canal bike path is a nicely shaded picnic area.