About Landlocked Steamboat Ticonderoga
A 220-foot steamboat sits in a field at Shelburne Museum, roughly two miles from the water where it once operated. The Ticonderoga is a full-size passenger vessel, not a replica or a building shaped like a ship. Somehow, an entire Lake Champlain steamer ended up permanently parked on land.
Built in 1906, the Ticonderoga carried passengers on Lake Champlain for decades. It is now recognized as the last surviving walking-beam side-wheel passenger steamer of its kind. When the vessel was retired from service, museum officials faced the obvious problem of preserving a ship at a museum that was not located on the shoreline.
In 1955, the steamboat was moved overland in a major engineering operation. The vessel reached the museum intact, where it was installed as a permanent exhibit. Visitors can now explore its decks, cabins, machinery, and public spaces while standing on grass instead of water.
Museums routinely move paintings, furniture, automobiles, and even buildings. Shelburne Museum moved a 220-foot steamboat. The preservation effort produced one of Vermont’s strangest visual contradictions: a vessel designed for Lake Champlain sitting comfortably in a field with no chance of floating away.