About Essex National Heritage Area

Essex National Heritage Commission (Essex Heritage) is a non-profit organization that has been federally authorized to manage and oversee the unique heritage resources of the Essex National Heritage Area (ENHA). Consisting of the 34 cities and towns that make up Essex County the ENHA spans the North Shore and Merrimack Valley of Eastern Massachusetts. Within this Heritage Area there are two National Parks (Salem Maritime National Historic Site and Saugus Ironworks National Historic Site) and the US Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. There are also several state parks, thousands of acres of conservation land, and numerous museums, historic houses and heritage sites that are open to the public and owned/managed by non-profit organizations and municipal governments.