GREATER MERRIMACK VALLEY AT A GLANCE

This region, west and north of Boston, is a hotbed of revolutionaries. The town greens and monuments of Lexington and Concord attest to the region’s critical role in the American Revolution; Lowell’s sturdy mill buildings are reminders of the city's prominent role in the American Industrial Revolution.

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Exhibits and guided tours of the Lowell National Historical Park chronicle the shift from farm to factory, the rise of immigrant labor, and the industrial technology that fueled these changes. Its Boott Cotton Mills Museum features an operating weave room whose 88 power looms generate a deafening clatter (ear plugs provided). Just steps away, you’ll find a cluster of lively art museums and galleries, including the New England Quilt Museum and the Revolving Museum. The Lowell Folk Festival is an exuberant celebration of the city’s multicultural heritage. Every Patriots’ Day (the third Monday in April), a band of Patriots and Redcoats gathers on Lexington Green at dawn to reenact the famous Battle of Lexington and the “shot heard ‘round the world." Concord lays claim to some of the greatest names in 19th-century American literature: Louisa May Alcott , Nathaniel Hawthorne , and Ralph Waldo Emerson . The Butterfly Place in Westford is home to as many as 500 butterflies at any one time. In Lincoln, the 35-acre Sculpture Park at the DeCordova Museum is the largest outdoor exhibition of American contemporary sculpture in New England.

REVOLUTIONARY RIDE

The Liberty Ride whisks visitors around to all the major historic sites and attractions in Lexington and Concord in the comfort of a 21st-century bus. One ticket provides riders with all-day step-on and step-off service.

WHAT'S NEW?

What caused inhabitants from the small farming community of Lexington to take up arms against their own government in 1775? A new exhibit at the National Heritage Museum, Sowing the Seeds of Liberty, employs objects, documents, images, and sounds to explain the root causes of the Battle of Lexington.