Bath Things to Do

Bath is a village of just under 6000 located along Interstate 86 in South Central New York. The village was named after either the daughter of one of the original settlers or after the town of Bath, England. Bath was founded in 1793. Bath is the county seat of Steuben County, which was named after General Von Steuben a German General who fought in the Revolutionary War.

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The Bath VA Complex can be seen from I-86 (route 17). The complex has a hospital, housing, medical staff buildings and a museum. The Veterans Administration Medical Center Historical Museum houses medical artifacts used by the U.S. military from the Revolutionary War (1776) to the present conflicts (2003). There is also a military burial ground with headstones that date back to the early 1800's.

On the whole, this is a pretty "sterile" (dull) museum unless you are a doctor or nurse.
The gravestones in the cemetery are interesting for their designs and inscriptions.

You can do the museum in one-half hour easily and add in another half-hour for the cemetery.

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(this really is closer to Hammondsport but more people will see this in the Bath Travel Guide)

The Museum is dedicated to the inventiveness and ingenuity of Glenn Curtiss. He was involved in things mechanical: motors, motor-bikes, motorcycles, airplanes.

It cost $10 per person and is open 10am to 4pm on most days in the summer.
Every plane with which Curtiss was involved is represented in the huge hanger/museum.
They are full size planes or full size sections of planes. (I did not include any pictures of them here because you can see better ones on the Curtiss web-site).
There are motors and gearing and other mechanical designs on which Curtiss worked.
There are motorcycles he designed and raced.
There is a glass case with hundreds of miniature scale planes of all make and manufacture, all done in balsa wood and all detailed to original specs.
Of course you will find knowledgeable attendants, a video room expounding the history of Curtiss and the obligatory gift shop. If you are interested in planes or things mechanical (like i am), you will be in the museum well over an hour. My wife spent the time in the gift shop.
If they are in the process of doing a restoration in the maintenance bay, then you could be another half-hour talking with the personnel doing the work (they do not seem to mind being interrupted with questions).