History

The Spicer Mansion, a true local treasure If you drive around this area you’ll see the name Spicer all over.  There’s Spicer Street, Spicer Marina, Spicer Propane, The Mystic/Noank Spicer Library — and an incredibly cool Spicer Mansion.   Many of our tours feature an exclusive insider view of the Mansion! Who was this guy…

Heck, Captain Joseph Holmes rounded it 84 times, how bad could it be? Between 1850 and 1900 at least 100 ships were lost with all hands.  That’s a lotta ships. Until the Panama Canal was built (1914), ships moving from Atlantic to Pacific had to go around the tip of South America…..passing through the most…

When you take your walking tour of Mystic, you’ll likely cross Holmes Street at some point.  When you do, think about this extraordinary seafaring father/son duo.  In a previous post on “Badass Sea Captains”,  I mentioned Joseph Warren Holmes — he’s the one who rounded the horn 84 times and never lost a ship or…

Mystic’s small size and unique character make it a place where history can be seen in a manageable way for the whole family.  The very first European explorers and settlers came to New England.  The rugged seacoast environment was harsh in some ways, but hugely attractive in others.   The stories of Indian wars, the…

Depending how you measure, the Mystic River is between 5 and 6 miles long…..technically it’s an estuary, given the impact of the tide. Despite it’s modest length, between 1784 and 1919, shipbuilders launched over 1,400 vessels into its deep, sheltered waters. Schooners, Clipper Ships, Fishing boats, Barges, and more. The deep water, the abundance of…

Mystic food tours, Mystic walking tours Mystic history tours….you don’t have to choose because Mystic Revealed tours incorporate all 3.   Our food, our ships, our history.  Feed your mind while feeding your body.  The maritime and shipbuilding history of Mystic is a defining part of the area’s character, and everywhere you look are iconic…

Ok we’ve researched a wide array of sea captains with Mystic roots or Mystic connections. There’s a ton. If you look at typical living conditions and consider the weather and seas many of these captains faced, you could make a case that ANY 19th century sea captain was a bad ass. That being said, here…

Mystic River Historical Association Our Mystic food tours are infused with the rich maritime history of this area. Many of the places you’ll visit were the sites of shipyards and naval battles, or the homes of sea captains or early settlers. The walls can’t talk, but our we can, and you’ll hear colorful stories about…

81 years ago on September 21st, 1938 the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history struck Southeast Connecticut, Rhode Island, Long Island and broad swaths of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.  Mystic locals still tell passed down stories of the storm that transformed a region and took almost 700 lives. From the book Sudden Sea,…

Many locals in this part of Southeastern Connecticut trace their roots to something with a maritime flavor. Mystic was a whaling and shipbuilding center for much of its history, and many descendants of those business owners are still in our midst. Right down the road in New London is the US Coast Guard Academy as…