ECHO inspires and engages everyone in the joy of scientific discovery, wonder of nature, and care of Lake Champlain.
Our vision: A science-savvy community where people and nature thrive together.
In 1991, a citizen advisory committee tasked with finding the highest and best use of public land on the Burlington Waterfront envisioned a museum where all people could explore science and connect to their local ecosystem. The realization of this dream began with a small pilot museum in space borrowed from the U.S. Naval Reserve. Known then as the Lake Champlain Science Center, we opened in 1995 and welcomed more than 33,000 people that first year.
ECHO has come a long way from our humble roots as an idea held by a group of civic-minded Vermonters. The museum has engaged an incredible 3.5 million people over our three decades, operating 360 days per year and traveling all over Vermont. And though much has grown and changed — renovated exhibits and spaces, expanded early childhood programming, an embrace of STEM, a turtle head start program, the addition of an outreach program — our foundational values remain unchanged. We are a public place where all are welcome and belong, where science and nature come alive, and where stewardship for a better tomorrow is seeded and grown.