It is located at the eastern terminus of U.S. Route 360 (Northumberland Highway) east of Heathsville, at the head of Cockrell's Creek on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

As early as the 1620s, in the area which became New England, the Native Americans had taught the Plymouth Colony's settlers the value of burying menhaden in each hill of corn, as fertilizer.

Captain Reed moved his business from Brooklin, Maine, to the Northern Neck, and brought to the established community of watermen a method of extracting large quantities of oil from the fish, by rendering them by the millions.

The museum also has two vessels, the skipjack Claude W. Somers and the deck boat Elva C, which were entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

The museum, which dedicates itself to preserving the watermen's heritage, has historical information about Reedville, the Chesapeake Bay, and the menhaden fishing industry.