A tent next to the new Empire Experience pond features a replica of the gunboat USS Philadelphia that carried General Benedict Arnold and his Continental Army troops in 1776 during the Revolutionary War. GUNBOATThe original Philadelphia, the oldest surviving American fighting naval vessel, was discovered in Lake Champlain in 1935 and is now housed at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

The 15-foot long replica was assembled onsite opening day by a team led by Erich Tichonuk, co-executive director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, VT.

Throughout the Fair, the exhibit will include the completed Philadelphia replica, daily wooden boat building demonstrations, PHILLY 17a shipwreck display and educational boating exhibits. The Great Lakes Research Consortium 24-7 sensing buoy will transmit data from an in-water remotely operated vehicle floating in pond.

The free exhibit opens daily at 10 am.