Aptucxet Trading Post
Replica of the Aptucxet Trading Post
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 Location on Cape Cod
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| Established | 1930 |
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| Location | Bourne, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 41°44′31″N 70°36′18″W / 41.742°N 70.605°W |
| Type | Historic site |
| Owner | Bourne Historical Society |
| Website | www |
The Aptucxet Trading Post Museum is a small open-air historical museum in Bourne, Massachusetts. The museum's main attraction is a replica of the 17th-century Aptucxet Trading Post, which was built by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in order to trade with the Wampanoags and the Dutch. In addition to the trading post, the museum also features a replica of a 19th-century saltworks, the relocated 19th-century Gray Gables Railroad Station, and a wooden smock windmill.
In 1627, English colonists from Plymouth Colony established a trading post about 20 miles (32 km) south of Plymouth at Aptucxet on the Manamet River (also known as the Manomet or Monument River) on upper Cape Cod. The post was the colonists' first permanent settlement on Cape Cod, although colonists had previously visited the Manamet River area to trade for corn and beans and to search for a missing colonist. The name Aptucxet is a Wampanoag word meaning "little trap in the river", possibly referring to a fishing weir.
The post was established primarily for the purpose of trading with the Wampanoags, which was desirable for the colonists for several reasons. The colony was in part reliant on corn and beans supplied by the Wampanoags, and some colonists hoped to start a fur trade in order to repay their debts to England. The trading post also came to be used as a site for trade between the English colonists and the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam (today New York City) to the south.
Aptucxet was the first trading post to be established by the Plymouth colonists, and it was followed in 1633 by the Metteneque Trading Post in what is now Windsor Locks, Connecticut and the Cushnoc Trading Post in what is now Augusta, Maine. Although it was located some distance from the colony, the post was staffed year-round by colonists. The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 damaged one of the buildings at the post, and by the 1650s, the post was abandoned. The land later became part of a European American farm.
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