Did you know that if you visit Ticonderoga, New York you can visit a 17th century fortress that was an important part of the French and Indian War as well as the American Revolution, and then go down the street and see the 23rd century and stand on the bridge of the Enterprise from the 1960s TV series Star Trek? I didn't know this until recently, and we decided to feature this visit as part of my 20th Century American series on this blog.
The Original Series Star Trek TV show aired from September 1966 to June 1967, produced by Desilu Productions and aired on NBC TV. Gene Roddenberry created the series, and Lucille Ball was the only producer in Hollywood to support the idea. It is considered Lucille Ball's influence that created the show's reputation for confronting civil rights, women's rights, and the idea of international or interplanetary peace and scientific exploration.
The series was doomed from the start with low ratings. It was canceled after only three seasons, even after an intense letter writing campaign by some rabid fans. The series was more popular in syndication in the 1970s, and influenced popular culture with more TV shows, 14 movies, and lots of games, merchandising, and toys. It is considered on the the most popular TV science fiction series. In 1972 the Associated Press called Star Trek "the show that won't die".
Now, 50 years later, the characters of Mr. Spock, Lieutenant Uhura, and Capt. James T. Kirk are considered immortal in the genre. NASA, science, and many technological advances used the names "Enterprise", "Jeffries Tube", and other props and ideas from Star Trek for real space craft and technology such as the flip phone, wireless earpieces, motion sensing doors, and universal translators.
The museum is the creation of fan James Cawley, who had collected many props and the plans for the original set. It took 14 years to recreate and is was fully licensed by CBS. The Star Trek Original Series Set Tour displays all the history of the show and many original props from the show in a set recreated from the original Desilu blue prints and documents. Original fabrics, materials and, when needed, recreated materials are displayed in the places where they were used on the set. You can only visit with a guided tour in small groups with a docent.
On the tour we explored the curved corridors (including the entrance to the Jeffries Tube), sick bay, science lab, crew breakroom, the Captain's quarters, the engine room, and the bridge. The materials used for the set were explained, and it is amazing how much of the set was built of cardboard and plywood. The set designers went "dumpster diving" to find objects to create decor, scientific equipment, navigational equipment and medical equipment. The walls all had panels which were removable for camera or to change out to create a new set, for example, the captain's quarters could be changed out to create other crew quarters, guest quarters, etc. I was impressed at how many original objects were on the set - found at auctions, donated by the cast members, or owned by other collectors.
My favorite part of the tour was seeing the famous motion detection doors in operation. When this TV series aired, there were not many of these doors available in public. In fact, we were told that NASA and MIT contacted Desilu productions for blueprints of the doors, which was quite funny because they were cardboard doors operated by ropes pulled by crew offstage. The famous "whoosh whoosh" sound effect was added in to the film post production by the sound department. Now we are accustomed to seeing these doors at every grocery store and office building, and we forget how ground breaking they were to see on TV.
The engine room of the USS Enterprise
This set was used a conference room, courtroom, and crew recreation room
on the series with just a few changes in furniture and props. Here are the 3D chess and checkers sets that were featured in many episodes of the TV show.
This famous door to the elevator leads to the bridge of the USS Enterprise
Vincent and Yours Truly in the captains chair on the bridge
Sick bay
Vincent in the transporter...
Where did Vincent disappear to? He wasn't even wearing a red shirt!
Posing in front of the Jeffries Tube
For the truly curious:
The Star Trek Original Series Set Tour Museum is located at 112 Montcalm Street, Ticonderoga, NY
The Star Trek Original Series Set Tour website: https://startrektour.com/
The Star Trek Original Series Set Tour Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekTour
Star Trek: The Original Series at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 3, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/11/star-trek-original-series-set-tour-in.html: accessed [access date]).
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