Fly Creek Area Historical Society

05/18/2026

Hope to see you!

05/03/2026

05/02/2026

TOMORROW - SUNDAY, MAY 3rd is the Fly Creek Area Historical Society's famous Country Breakfast!!! Hope to see you there!!!

04/15/2026

Please join us next Wednesday, April 22nd, at 6:30 PM. Hope to see you there!!!

03/25/2026

Please join us!

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐓𝐒𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐄𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟓
Local History with the
Fly Creek Area Historical Society
https://www.allotsego.com/time-out-otsego-03-25-26/

03/15/2026

Crewing on the Rigged Unicorn: An Insight Into Working and Sailing on a Square-Rigged Vessel

Join John Philips at the Fort Plain Museum on Saturday, March 21st at 1 pm. Members Free/Non-Members $5 - Not a Member? This a great opportunity to join. Refreshments will be served!

John will provide a presentation about his time on the Unicorn. John will give a sense of what it was like to work on one of these vessels. Although this is not particularly about the revolutionary war, the vessels haven’t changed much.

John graduated from State University of New York, Oneonta in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in earth sciences. John never took a draft deferment so after he graduated, he was waiting to get drafted but it never happened. John's dad, who worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, used to take his lunch down at South St. Seaport and came home one day all excited about this old square rigger that sailed in from Europe. Dick Koopman a partner in a boat with John on Long Island decided to check it out and then ended up volunteering to work on it doing various carpentry tasks. One thing led to another with various promotional sailing trips and then a large trip was planned to go to the Falkland Islands. His story sort of revolves around that.

As for John's collection, he started before he was 10 years old collecting old bottles because that was something he could afford. Then his dad and he had a small business buying and selling and repairing old guns. John moved to Fly Creek in 1997 and continued his general contracting business that he had started on Long Island. John a volunteer firefighter, met Peter Couser at a Springfield Center Parade, who introduced me to the Fort Plain Museum for which he is forever grateful.

03/14/2026

Please Join Us!!