Behind-the-Scenes Factory Tours | The Best 5

Want to see Yankee ingenuity in action? Go behind the scenes on a factory tour. “Made in New England” pride thrives at factories that produce everything from frozen commodities to cuddly gifts guaranteed to melt hearts. As a piano or a naval destroyer takes shape before your eyes, you’ll realize anything built to last requires one component that can’t be manufactured: passion.

»Bath Iron Works Bath, Maine

For national security reasons, you can’t venture inside the gates of this massive shipyard on Maine’s Kennebec River. Yet Bath Iron Works’ inner workings are revealed on tours offered by the Maine Maritime Museum mid-May through October. Don’t expect a canned spiel on your 90-minute excursion, which begins with a video at the museum and includes trolley stops at strategic vantage points. Each volunteer guide has worked for Bath Iron Works, so whether you’re listening to a top-level executive’s insights or a welder’s tales, you’ll hear unique perspective on the company’s 125-plus years of shipbuilding innovation. Visitors who add on an hourlong cruise see even more impressive views of construction under way on U.S. Navy ships like the Zumwalt-class destroyer. 207-443-1316; mainemaritimemuseum.org/visit/bath-iron-works-trolley-tours

»Cape Pond Ice Gloucester, Massachusetts

When Cape Pond Ice was founded in 1848, Mother Nature provided the refrigeration. These days, giant blocks of ice aren’t harvested from local ponds; they’re manufactured. On ice house tours year-round, you can watch the “coolest guys around” turn water into cold, hard cash. Inside this frosty factory, where 300 tons of ice are produced daily, antique hydraulic block upenders are everyday tools, and ice sculptures survive for decades. Cape Pond’s diverse product line includes everything from ice shot luges to three grades of chopped ice critical to Gloucester’s fishing industry. Plus, more than 15 years after actor John Hawkes wore a Cape Pond Ice T-shirt in The Perfect Storm, sales of logo wear still account for nearly 10 percent of revenues. 978-283-0174; capepondice.com/ice-house-tours

»Mason & Hamlin Piano Company Haverhill, Massachusetts

In the basement of an old shoe factory, sheets of hard rock maple are dried, glued in layers, and fed into enormous outer-and-inner-rim presses: A piano’s skeleton is born. Each Wednesday morning, by reservation, you can climb six more floors, observing the unparalleled artistry and precision that go into producing the rich American sound that characterizes Mason & Hamlin pianos. The factory’s 50 employees craft only about 200 grands and uprights annually. Since purchasing the company—one of the two surviving piano manufacturers in America—in 1996, the Burgett family has revived the ideals of its founders while meticulously innovating. After you meet keen-eared technicians in the action department and observe the labor-intensive finishing process that makes these instruments gleam, the top-floor showroom’s price tags won’t seem so staggering. 978-374-8888; masonhamlin.com/factory

»Rock of Ages Graniteville, Vermont

In the 1920s, when the first curious road-trippers began poking around, most quarrying operations posted “Keep Out” signs. Rock of Ages built a visitor center and launched a tour program. From May through late-October each year, as many as 60,000 guests still line up to tour the world’s largest deep-hole dimension granite quarry, where machinery hoists blocks that weigh as much as half a million pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Even more visitors stop by for self-guided tours of the factory, where artisans use both age-old and modern tools to sculpt memorials and statuary. You’re encouraged to snag a free sample of this sturdy, fine-grained stone. Don’t worry: It’s estimated there’ll be plenty to quarry for the next 4,500 years. 802-476-3119; rockofages.com/en/visitors/tours

»Vermont Teddy Bear Shelburne, Vermont

There’s nothing grizzly about handling bear guts. At least not at New England’s most adorable factory, where half-hour tours are overstuffed with puns. John Sortino stitched the first Vermont Teddy Bears in 1983 and sold them from a cart. Now, more than 150,000 Bear-Grams are sent each year. You’ll be entertained and impressed as giant sheets of fur are cut, bear parts are expertly stitched and stuffed, and teddies are outfitted so they won’t enter the world “bear” naked. The bear hospital, where these guaranteed-for-life companions receive full-coverage health care, is a favorite tour stop. In the shop, you can even hand-make your own bear to cherish. 802-985-3001; vermontteddybear.com/come-visit-us