New England Boating: Newburyport - Plum Island Airfield

Parker visits the Plum Island Airfield, where she gets to talk to John Murray about the airfield, and gets to fly in a plane. Newburyport’s past is defined by the mighty Merrimack River, which pours from the New Hampshire mountains and empties into the Atlantic at the northern end of Plum Island. Initially a trading hub that saw its first commercial wharf built in 1655, Newburyport has served, at one time or another, as a hideout for privateers who plundered enemy ships in the early 1800s; a mill town dotted with tanneries and steam-powered mills in the mid 1800s; and a shipbuilding center famous for its schooners and clipper ships. After falling on hard times in the early 1900s as the mills and shops were shuttered, Newburyport became a dingy and disreputable place for many years.