Door County Maritime Museum

Last updated
Door County Maritime Museum
Cana Island Lighthouse Sep2013.jpg
Cana Island Light which is owned by the County of Door, and operated by DCMM
Door County Maritime Museum
Established1969
Location120 North Madison Avenue, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Coordinates 44°49′49″N87°22′58″W / 44.8303°N 87.3829°W / 44.8303; -87.3829 Coordinates: 44°49′49″N87°22′58″W / 44.8303°N 87.3829°W / 44.8303; -87.3829
Type Maritime museum
Visitors65,000 [1]
DirectorKevin Osgood
PresidentTerry Connelly
CuratorRhys Kuzdas
Website www.dcmm.org

The Door County Maritime Museum is an American maritime museum located in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, with additional sites in Gills Rock, Wisconsin, and the Cana Island Light.

Contents

History

The museum was founded in Gills Rock, Wisconsin, in 1969 and began operating at the Cana Island Light in 1971. [2] The Gills Rock location was opened in 1975. [2]

In 1993, the museum began a capital campaign to build a year-round facility in Sturgeon Bay, which was accomplished in 1997. [2]

In 2015, the museum began another capital campaign to expand their Sturgeon Bay museum with the construction of a 10-story lighthouse tower, which will contain exhibit space and an observation deck. Construction of the Maritime Lighthouse Tower will be completed in November 2020; the facility will open to the public in May 2021. [1]

Sites

Door County Maritime Museum (Sturgeon Bay site)

Construction at the Sturgeon Bay site in August 2020 DoorCountyMaritimeMuseumConstructionAug2020.jpg
Construction at the Sturgeon Bay site in August 2020

The main Door County Maritime Museum site was opened in 1997. [2] It contains the museum's offices, as well as its main exhibits. The site also hosts the tugboat John Purves, which was built in 1919, served the U.S. Army in World War II, and later sailed on the Great Lakes. [3] The site also hosts CG-41410, which was the last 41-foot Utility Boat, Large in active service with the U.S. Coast Guard. [4]

In 2019, the museum began an effort to add an addition onto the museum, including a lighthouse tower. [5] Exterior construction was finished by November 5th, with the Jim Kress Lighthouse Tower becoming Sturgeon Bay's tallest building. [6]

Deaths Door Maritime Museum (Gills Rock site)

The Gills Rock site opened in 1975. [2] It contains exhibits that focus on the commercial fishing industry and pirates on the Great Lakes. [2] The site also hosts a 45-foot wooden fishing boat, which was built in 1930. [7] The site is open seasonally from May to October. Prior to 2018, it was named as the other Door County Maritime Museum and is still referenced today.

Cana Island Lighthouse

The Cana Island Lighthouse (aka Cana Island Light) [8] was constructed in 1869 and opened as a museum site in 1971. [2] It is located near Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Access to the island is via a causeway. After the winter of 2015–16, heavy snow, rain, and decreased evaporation caused Lakes Michigan and Huron to rise 30+ inches; that summer the causeway was occasionally covered by water, so the Museum purchased a tractor and wagon to take visitors to the lighthouse when the causeway was covered with water. Summers of 2017 and 2018, the causeway was always covered. Volunteers drive the tractor.

The lighthouse keeper's residence has been restored and is a museum depicting life for a lighthouse family.

Restoration as of summer 2018:
Phase 1 has been completed and included new restroom facilities and a maintenance building; a parking lot; repair to the copper roof; repainting of the tower; repaired masonry on the tower and keeper's house; restoration of windows and doors; and many other updates.
Phase 2 was completed in 2017 and included restoring the out buildings including the oil house, privy and barn.
Phase 3 is scheduled for late 2018/early 2019 and includes construction of a visitor's center to replace the temporary building.
Phase 4 is scheduled to start after Phase 3 fundraising and construction are complete. Phase 4 will restore the interior of the keeper's house ($1,000,000). [9] [10] The 89-foot light tower is also open for tours. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Door County, Wisconsin County in Wisconsin, United States

Door County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,066. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay, making it one of three Wisconsin counties on Lake Michigan not to have a county seat with the same name. Instead it is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The dangerous passage, known as Death's Door, contains shipwrecks and was known to Native Americans and early French explorers. The county was created in 1851 and organized in 1861. Door County is a popular Upper Midwest vacation destination. It is home to a small Walloon population.

Pottawatomie Light Lighthouse in Wisconsin, United States

Pottawatomie Lighthouse, also known as the Rock Island Light, is located in Rock Island State Park, on Rock Island in Door County, Wisconsin. Lit in 1836, it is the oldest light station in Wisconsin and on Lake Michigan. It was served by civilian light keepers from 1836 to the 1940s, at which point it was taken over by the US Coast Guard.

St. Augustine Light Lighthouse in Florida, US

The St. Augustine Light Station is a private-aid to navigation and an active, working lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. The tower is the second lighthouse tower in St. Augustine, the first being lit officially by the American territorial government in May 1824 as Florida's first lighthouse. However, both the Spanish and the British governments operated a major aid to navigation here including a series of wooden watch towers and beacons dating from 1565.

Cana Island Light Lighthouse

The Cana Island lighthouse is a lighthouse located just north of Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin, United States.

Baileys Harbor Light Lighthouse in Wisconsin, United States

The Baileys Harbor lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin.

Eagle Bluff Light Lighthouse

The Eagle Bluff Light, also known as Eagle Bluff lighthouse, or simply Eagle Bluff, is a lighthouse located near Ephraim in Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. Construction was authorized in 1866, but the lighthouse was not actually built until 1868 at a cost of $12,000. It was automated in 1926. Restoration work began on the Eagle Bluff Light in 1960 and was completed in 1963, upon completion the Lighthouse was opened for tours. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Plum Island Range Lights Lighthouse

The Plum Island Range Lights are a pair of range lights located on Plum Island in Door County, Wisconsin. They were part of the Plum Island United States Life-Saving Station. Plum Island was transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 and became part of the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The life-saving station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Plum Island is closed to the public to protect ground nesting migratory birds.

Pilot Island Light Lighthouse in Wisconsin, United States

The Pilot Island Light is a lighthouse located near Gills Rock, on Pilot Island at the east end of Death's Door passage, in Door County, Wisconsin.

Sturgeon Bay Canal North Pierhead Light Lighthouse in Wisconsin, United States

The Sturgeon Bay tinkly Toni Canal North Pierhead Light is a lighthouse located on Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin.

Rock Island (Wisconsin)

Rock Island is a mostly wooded island off the tip of Wisconsin's Door Peninsula at the mouth of Green Bay, in Door County, Wisconsin. The 974.87-acre (394.5 ha) island is approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long and 1.1 miles (1.8 km) wide. It rises to 65 meters above Lake Michigan, making it the highest in elevation out of all the Potawatomi Islands. It is almost entirely owned by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which maintains Rock Island State Park. It is the northernmost part of the town of Washington.

Robbins Reef Light 1883 sparkplug lighthouse, Bayonne, NJ

The Robbins Reef Light Station is a sparkplug lighthouse located off Constable Hook in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, along the west side of Main Channel, Upper New York Bay. The tower and integral keepers quarters were built in 1883. It replaced an octagonal granite tower built in 1839. The U.S. Coast Guard owned and operated the light station until the 2000s.

Eagle Harbor Light Lighthouse in Michigan, United States

Eagle Harbor Light is an operational lighthouse at Eagle Harbor, in Keweenaw County in the state of Michigan. It sits on the rocky entrance to Eagle Harbor and is one of several light stations that guide mariners on Lake Superior across the northern edge of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The original lighthouse, built in 1851, was replaced in 1871 by the present red brick structure, which is a Michigan State Historic Site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Peninsula State Park State park in Door County, Wisconsin

Peninsula State Park is a 3,776-acre (1,528 ha) Wisconsin state park with eight miles (13 km) of Green Bay shoreline in Door County. Peninsula is the third largest state park in Wisconsin and is visited by an estimated one million visitors annually.

Sturgeon Point Light Lighthouse in Michigan, United States

The Sturgeon Point Light Station is a lighthouse on Lake Huron in Haynes Township, Alcona County, northeastern lower Michigan. Established to ward mariners off a reef that extends 1.5 miles (2.4 km) lakeward from Sturgeon Point, it is today regarded as a historic example of a Cape Cod style Great Lakes lighthouse.

Edgartown Harbor Light Lighthouse

Edgartown Harbor Light is a lighthouse located in Edgartown, Massachusetts, United States, where it marks the entrance to Edgartown Harbor and Katama Bay. It is one of five lighthouses on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The first lighthouse, a two-story wooden structure that also served as the keeper's house, was constructed in 1828. It was demolished, and replaced by the current cast-iron tower, in 1939. Originally located on an artificial island 1/4 miles from shore, the lighthouse is now surrounded by a beach formed, since 1939, by sand accumulating around the stone causeway connecting it to the mainland.

Cana Island Island in Lake Michigan in Door County, Wisconsin

Cana Island is an island in Lake Michigan in the town of Baileys Harbor in Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The Cana Island Light is on the east side of the island. It is possible to walk to Cana Island from the mainland over the tombolo when water levels are low. Tombolo conditions are monitored by a webcam operated by the county parks department. The island is part of the Town of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin.

Rock Island Light Lighthouse

Rock Island Light is a lighthouse on Rock Island in the Saint Lawrence River in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The island is owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and operated as Rock Island Lighthouse State Park.

Stannard Rock Light Lighthouse in Michigan, United States

The Stannard Rock Light, completed in 1883, is a lighthouse located on a reef that was the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated as one of the top ten engineering feats in the United States. It is 24 miles (39 km) from the nearest land, making it the most distant lighthouse in the United States. It was one of the "stag stations", manned only by men, and had the nickname "The Loneliest Place in the World".

North Point Light Lighthouse

The North Point Lighthouse Museum is a lighthouse built in 1888 in Lake Park on the East Side of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States to mark the entrance to the Milwaukee River. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It was also added to the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey as survey HABS WI-358.

Chantry Island Lighthouse Lighthouse

The Chantry Island Lighthouse, officially known as Chantry Island Lightstation Tower, is a lightstation on Chantry Island, off the coast of Southampton, Ontario in Lake Huron. It was constructed in the years 1855 through to 1859, by John Brown of Thorold, Ontario, under the authority of the Province of Canada and is recognized as one of the six Imperial Towers. Virtually identical, they were completed in 1858-1859 on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and are among the few lighthouses on the Great Lakes made of cut limestone and granite.

References

  1. 1 2 Alyssa Bloechl (March 14, 2015). "Door County Maritime Museum tower: Reaching new heights". Green Bay Press-Gazette. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "A Brief History of the Door County Maritime Museum". Door County Maritime Museum. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  3. "Tug John Purves". Door County Maritime Museum. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  4. Amy Paul (May 19, 2015). "Last USCG Boat Placed in Front of Door County Maritime Museum". Door County Today. Retrieved December 26, 2016.[ dead link ]
  5. Media, Tweak Social; Marketing. "Maritime Lighthouse Tower Project". Door County Maritime Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  6. Kennedy, Robert. "Door County Landmark Taking Shape". 94.3 Jack FM | Playing What We Want | Green Bay, WI. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
  7. "Door County Maritime Museum - Gills Rock". Door County Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on April 21, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  8. "Seeing The Light - Cana Island Lighthouse". www.terrypepper.com. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  9. Media, Tweak Social; Marketing. "Cana Island Restoration Project". Door County Maritime Museum. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  10. 1 2 "Cana Island Light Station". Door County Maritime Museum. Retrieved December 26, 2016.