The Jamestown Riverwalk follows the Chadakoin River through downtown for five miles, while Jamestown’s offerings range from a personalized comedy experience to historical collections. This mix offers different focuses for your trip: culture and television history, local history, sports or exercise by the water. You can organize activities based on your interests by considering the differences between an experience and a collection, a festival and an exhibition, and a trail and a ramp.

Comedy, Museum and Festival

The National Comedy Center is an interactive, immersive and personalized experience. The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum offers a different focus: it features replica sets, Lucille Ball’s Emmy Awards and costumes, as well as rare memorabilia from “I Love Lucy” and other shows. The two destinations thus explore comedy in different ways—through the experience at the Center and through specific sets and collection pieces at the museum. This difference can help you choose the focus of your trip. Interactive describes participation, immersive describes becoming immersed in a subject, and personalized describes an experience tailored to an individual; the three terms therefore each identify a different characteristic of the experience.

The Lucille Ball Comedy Festival adds live events to the comedy-themed attractions. It is Jamestown’s largest annual event and features more than 50 live events. Since the program may change, check the current event dates before your trip if you plan to schedule your stay around the festival.

History and Collections

The Fenton History Center is located in the 1863 mansion of Reuben E. Fenton, the 22nd governor of New York State. The “Made in Jamestown: How Furniture Built a City” exhibition offers another perspective. Its title alone draws a connection between furniture and local history; individual exhibits may change.

The Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame adds sports memorabilia from baseball, basketball, golf, bowling and auto racing to the mix. Tours can be arranged for groups at any time. To do so, contact Randy Anderson at 716-484-2272.

Getting Around by the Water

The Jamestown Riverwalk is a five-mile urban trail system that follows the Chadakoin River through downtown Jamestown. It’s suitable for walking, jogging, biking and rollerblading. Its length and range of uses make the Riverwalk a distinct option for exercise.

At the outlet of Chautauqua Lake, McCrea Point Park has a boat launch and an accessible kayak launch. Here, the focus is on launches for boating and kayaking, while the Riverwalk is an urban trail system for different kinds of exercise. This distinguishes two different focuses for waterfront activities.

Discover more destinations: Bemus Point, Mina, Clymer, Dunkirk, Panama, Falconer, Fredonia, Mayville

For the main trip overview: Chautauqua.