An 88-foot schooner made a stop in Fairport Sunday.

The Lois McClure was docked along the Erie Canal as part of the Our Shared Heritage: World Canals Tour.

It may be hard to visualize what the Erie Canal was like in the 1860s, but this boat is a history book without barriers.

"There's a hidden world of things that happen in this boat that triggers imagination," said Art Cohn, Lois McClure Captain and Dir of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.

"The interior of this boat is very much like the tractor-trailers going down the road today. Vast space to put cargo and move things in and out of communities," said Cohn.

The Lois McClure hales from Vermont. It is a replica of a shipwrecked boat from 1862 that still sits at the bottom of Lake Champlain. The schooner was built in 2000 and launched in 2004.

"Everything they did in terms of size, shape, configuration, everything they did. Even the wood types are the same," said Cohn.

From the captains living quarters, to the list of cargo aboard, the Lois McClure takes tourists to another century.

"Back then there weren't any cars or trucks and this is how cargo was transported to different cities. It's very interesting," said Mark Baker of Fairport.

The boat brings a lot of attention to Fairport’s second Main Street.

"We didn't know the boat was here. My daughter and I were cruising by and we saw it and gave them a call right away so they (his family) could come by and visit as well," said Michael Lebanc of Fairport.

"What the Lois McClure does, it helps us draw from a little further out than we normally draw as far as people coming into the village,” said Scott Winner, Village of Fairport partnership director.

The boat is part of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and will cruise to various cities along regional canals through mid-October.

Museum officials say already it has attracted more than 100,000 spectators, turning their imagination into a clear vision of history.

"It takes it out of a flat page where you might read about it online and it becomes three-dimensional. You're standing in it," said Winner.

The historical schooner will stop in Rochester at Corn Hill Landing from September 17 to 22.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum