Regional artifacts and native stone and antler tools speak to the long human occupation on the island and its maritime focus. Among the museum's highlights is a 1903 Orient buckboard, first "car" in San Juan County and equipped with a tiller for steering. A series of ship models by respected model-builder and longtime Lopez resident, Ralph Hitchcock, replicate the historic passenger ferries and other vessels that once plied the waters of Puget Sound. Also in the museum's collection are three dugout canoes and a gill-net boat used by a local fisherman from the 1930s to 1980s.