What did the Mystic River area look like in the mid-1800s? This spectacular Mystic River Scale Model, 12-feet wide by 40-feet long, is built to the scale of 3/32 inch=1 foot, or 1/128th. It provides Museum visitors with a dramatic bird’s-eye view of history. After years of continuing research and construction, the model features more than 250 detailed dwellings, shops, barns, and lofts, as well as five local shipyards. At the Greenman Brothers’ yard (on the current site of Mystic Seaport Museum) the record-breaking clipper David Crockett is on the ways and other vessels lie in the water or at dockside all along the river.

Sound-and-light shows help visitors understand what went on in the active communities of Mystic River (in the Town of Groton) and Mystic Bridge (in the Town of Stonington) during the height of shipbuilding, between about 1850 and 1880.

The Mystic River Scale Model has been evolving since 1958. A group of volunteer model builders continues to work on additions and detailing.