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Shelburne Museum Ticonderoga - Shelburne, Vermont

The S.S. Ticonderoga started her career in 1906 in the shipyards at Shelburne Harbor on Lake Champlain. For 47 years, this steel hulled side wheeler cruised the length and breadth of Lake Champlain carrying passengers, freight and even the automobiles which, in the end, did so much to bring about her forced retirement.
By 1950, the aging steamboat was no longer a paying proposition and seemed destined to be broken up for its value as scrap metal. If it had not been for the vigorous action of a citizens' committee, led by Ralph Nading Hill of Burlington, the "Ti" would, today, be just a memory. Under the auspices of the Burlington Junior Chamber of Commerce and later, the Shelburne Museum, the "Ti" remained afloat four more years as a tourist vessel. But the problems of maintaining the old boat through autumn hurricanes and winter snow and ice, of cleaning, repairing and licensing the ancient boilers, and of finding trained crewmen, proved a losing battle. The decision to move the "Ti" to the Shelburne Museum's grounds seemed the best way to avert disaster and to preserve the boat for future generations.

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