Museum Programs and Tours
The L.C. Bates Museum offers a wide variety of programs, tours, and outdoor activities, on topics as varied as natural science, art, and Maine’s history, allowing participants to have up-close looks at the collections or take a guided walk along the museum’s nature trails.
Click to explore full museum programs and tour offerings
Summer Day Camps
Link to pamphlet on 2020 Summer Day Camps
To enroll, contact the Museum through mail, phone, or email!
PO Box 159 Hinckley, ME 04944 |207-238-4250 | [email protected]
Campers are reminded to dress appropriately for mess, activities, and weather and are encouraged to pack extra layers and wear sturdy walking shoes. Please pack a backpack, health snack, water bottle, and lunch if specified.
*Dates for 2020 program offerings are subject to cancellation to ensure the health and safety of our visitors*
Naturally Creative Camp: June 22–26 | $110, Ages 6–12, 9am–2pm (please bring lunch)
Get a closer look at nature art activities. Be prepared to get your hands dirty with both pond mud and paint as we are inspired by plants, animals, and the museum collections
Time Travel Camp: June 29–July 2 | $65, Ages 6– 12, 9am–Noon
Campers will travel back in time to discover history while exploring the museum. Activities include an archeological dig, using Native American tools, printing on a historic printing press, and learning about life as a child in Maine in the 1900s.
Wildlife Camp: July 6–10 | $115, Ages 6–12, 9am–2pm (please bring lunch)
Go on an exploration to find different species in nature including all of the animals at our pond! Time to put your naturalist knowledge to the test as we learn about Maine’s wildlife. Create a diorama and bring home your own favorite (toy) species.
Camp Rock!: July 13– 17 | $70, Ages 6–12, 9am–Noon
Campers will learn about glaciers and how our planet Earth was formed. Explore fossils! Create a shoreline town and see what we could do to protect it from erosion. Investigate rocks through art and hands on projects.
Earth and Sky Astronomy Camp: July 20–24 | $70, Ages 6–15, 9 am–Noon
Get ready for a camp that is out of this world. Campers began with exploring the basics of our solar system through new hands on activities provided by NASA! Explore with tools like telescopes, solar glasses, and galaxy models.
Nature Nuggets Camp: July 27–August 31 | $70, Ages 4.5–6, 9am–Noon
This is a special camp for our younger scientists. Campers get to investigate creatures in their habitats with nets in hand!
Science Buddies (STEAM Camp): August 3–7 | $115, Ages 6–12, 9am–2pm (please bring lunch)
Our summer science programs let children become junior scientists and embark on a series of science adventures. STEAM is a popular acronym for the fields “science, technology, engineering, art and math,” designed to demonstrate their interconnectedness.
Junior Curators Camp: August 10–14 | $70, Ages 7–17, 9am–Noon
Campers work in depth with museum collections, and make their own mini collections bring home. Learn more about the mystery of conversation and collection care. Experience real-world museum careers.
Stone Monuments along the Good Will-Hinckley Trails
Downloadable PDF Trail Map of The Good Will-Hinckley Trails
Seton Fireplace and the Black Wolf Seat
Ernest Thompson Seton, the “Black Wolf” and Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America, arrived at Good Will on 31 July 1912. He built with loose stone a round fireplace in a little natural amphitheater, along with a seat for himself to sit with dignity, overseeing all fireplace ceremonies which included the “Caribou Dance.” This was the origin of the campus tradition of a Seton Fireplace ceremony to mark the beginning of school year. In the following spring, the seat had fallen down, so it was rebuilt by professional stone mason, George Nichols in 1915.
Roosevelt Monument
This monument was built in 1921 in honor of Theodore Roosevelt, conservator of natural resources and devoted naturalist. The stone in the middle was selected by Edith Roosevelt from the Roosevelt estate on Long Island, NY.
Dartmouth Trail Entrance
In 1915, the field stone entrance to the Dartmouth Trail was built with funds from the Outing Club of Dartmouth.
Murray Tablets
This monument is dedicated to one of George Hinckley’s personal heroes, Adirondack Murray, “Father of the Outdoor Movement,” author and religious figure. Hinckley himself selected the monument’s stones and M.L. Wagner did the actual masonry work. The monument, dedicated in 1920, is meant to look like an early pulpit and is placed on a high point of land. On 20 June 1963, 26 families met here for a solar eclipse and formed the Family Motor Coach Homes Association (FMCA).
Granite House
For for an exhibition of Maine granites, Charles D. Hubbard laid plans for a stone and log cabin known as the “Granite House.” He and Mr. Hinckley went around the state to gather specimens from many counties and to create oil sketches or paintings of quarries to adorn the walls of the house. Granite house was built in the center of the “Garden of Rocks,” outdoor gardens for igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
Bird Sanctuary
Built in 1932, when there were flower gardens in the area, the sanctuary included bronze tablets that contained quotations about birds written by well-known authors. At times, bird feeders were placed in the sanctuary and a nearby spring provided water for the birds.
Sunset Trail Entrance
In 1928, the Sunset Entrance to the Continental Trail was built, including stones gathered from Death Valley, Mount Mitchell, and Mount Katahdin.
Sunrise Trail Entrance
Built by James Tuttie in 1930, the Sunrise Entrance to the Continental Trail included bronze plaques inscribed with passages from literature about flowers. There were many stones from historic points east of the Mississippi gathered by Good Will boys and girls including stones from the Concord battle field, Walden Pond, Lake George (NY), and the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Sunrise Fireplace
Sunrise Fireplace was built in 1933, with memorials devoted to passages from literature describing four-footed animals. The plaques also honored benefactors like George Henry Quincy and William L. Bidwell.
Tenterden Tablets
After G.W. Hinckley and his wife Harriet visited Tenterden, England, in 1914, the tablet memorial was dedicated in October 1916 to honor Hinckley genealogy. To see the slate plaques, visit the L.C. Bates Museum during visiting hours.
Bowdoin Boulder
Walter Palmer Hinckley, graduate of Bowdoin College, placed the Bowdoin Boulder on the Bowdoin Trail in 1923. The bronze tablet on the boulder is inscribed with a passage on the meaning of college work by William DeWitt Hyde, past president of Bowdoin College.
Bowdoin Circle
The stone walls of Bowdoin Circle in back of the Page Terrace cottages were built in 1929. They contained 12 bronze memorial plaques inscribed with passages from literature about the beauty of trees.