Antique Boat Museum

Appropriately enough, Clayton has the finest collection of antique wooden boats in America. Among them are canoes, sailboats, launches, raceboats, runabouts, and, of course, the famed St. Lawrence skiff.

The gleaming boats, most built of highly polished woods and brass, are housed in a former lumberyard (750 Mary St., 315/686-4104, www.abm.org, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. daily mid-May–mid-Oct., adults $12, seniors $11, students $10, children 5–17 $6) on the edge of town. There are over 150 vessels in all, spread out over eight buildings, along with a boatbuilding shop, almost 300 inboard and outboard motors, and 12,000 nautical artifacts.

The oldest settlement in northern New York, established in 1749, Ogdensburg is a busy port and industrial town at the juncture of the Oswegatchie and St. Lawrence Rivers. Along the St. Lawrence downtown runs the Greenbelt Riverfront Park (Riverside Dr.), dotted with historical plaques that detail the War of 1812 Battle of Ogdensburg.

A few blocks south of the park is the town’s foremost visitor attraction—the Frederic Remington Art Museum.

The hands-on ScienCenter (60l 1st St., at Franklin St., 607/272-0600, www.sciencenter.org, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Sun., adults $6, children 3–17 $4) primarily appeals to young ones, but adults can learn something here as well. Walk into a camera for a zoom-lens view of how it works. Draw your own picture on a “harmonograph.”

Measure the electrical current running through your body. Or, play outdoor mini-golf on the Galaxy Golf Course. Pre-schoolers will want to explore the Curiosity Corner, while older kids will probably head to the animal room or space exhibits.

The state-of-the-art Glass Museum (1 Museum Way, Exit 46 off I-86, 607/937-5371 or 800/732-6845, www.cmog.org, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. daily, with extended hours to 8 p.m. in summer, adults $14, seniors $11.90, students $12.60, children under 20 free, discounted combo tickets with the Rockwell Museum of Western Art) sits surrounded by sleek corporate buildings on the north side of town. Its undulating walls are made of a blue-gray glass, while its modern entrance is built of four giant panes of glass.

Near the eastern end of Market Street presides the Rockwell Museum (111 Cedar St., 607/937-5386, www.rockwellmuseum.org, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. daily, with extended hours in summer, adults $6.50, seniors and students $5.50, children under 20 free, families $20, discounted combo tickets with the Corning Museum of Glass), which has nothing to do with Norman Rockwell and everything to do with Western art.

Collected by Corning denizen Robert F. Rockwell, this is said to be the most comprehensive assemblage of Western art in the East.

Many of Buffalo’s museums cluster together about four or five miles north of downtown, near Delaware Park. To get there take Delaware Avenue, a wide thoroughfare lined with mansions, most once owned by wealthy families and now home to law firms and the like.

Follow Delaware Avenue to Gates Circle and turn left on Chapin Parkway to reach Lincoln Parkway and Delaware Park. At the intersection of Chapin and Lincoln Parkway is the William R. Heath House (72 Soldier’s Pl.), one of five houses in the city designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

As the self-proclaimed “Garden Spot of New York State,” Eden, just south of Hamburg on Route 62, is a pristine small town surrounded by farm country. Downtown stands the Original American Kazoo Company: Museum, Gift Shop, Factory (8703 S. Main St., near 1st St., 716/992-3960, www.edenkazoo.com, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Sun.). Established in 1916, the Original is now the only metal kazoo factory in the world. The company paid $5,000 for its first kazoo patent and still manufactures kazoos the way it always has, using die presses and sheet metal.

Up until the late 1990s, the Strong National Museum of Play (1 Manhattan Sq., at Chestnut and Woodbury Blvd., 585/263-2700, www.museumofplay.org, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Thurs., 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Fri.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Sun., adults $11, seniors $10, children 2–15 $9) was one of the most unusual museums in New York State, specializing in everyday American history and folk art.

In it, you could find over a half million objects ranging from antique toys, dollhouses, and advertising memorabilia to weathervanes, political campaign buttons, and quilts.

The Museum at Black Hills Institute (117 Main St., 605/574-4289, www.bhigr.com, summer Mon.–Sat. 9 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m., winter Mon.–Sat. 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Sun. noon–4 p.m., adult $7.50, child 6–15 $4, child 5 and under free) was organized in 1991. Its mission was “to collect, conserve, curate and display extraordinary geological and natural history specimens that have the power to educate, enlighten, and excite people about the wonders of the natural world.”

The Journey Museum (222 New York St., 605/394-6923, www.journeymuseum.org, Memorial Day–Labor Day daily 9 a.m.–6 p.m., winter Mon.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun. 1–5 p.m., adult $7–9, student $5–7.50, child free–$2) is a great resource for visitors interested in the cultural, historical, and environmental aspects of the Black Hills. Collections include archaeology, geology, paleontology, Lakota history, and pioneer history. Museums can sometimes feel stagnant and dusty, but not the Journey.