Win 2 guest passes to your choice of one Door County Maritime Museum site in Wisconsin.

The Museum operates three locations, including:

• The Door County Maritime Museum along the working waterfront in Sturgeon Bay;


• The iconic Cana Island Lighthouse in Baileys Harbor


• The Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock.

As one of northeast Wisconsin’s top tourism destinations, averaging 95,000 visitors annually, the Door County Maritime Museum serves as a cultural and educational resource for all 72 counties in Wisconsin. 

Their Vision: To be a preeminent cultural and educational resource for the preservation and stewardship of regional maritime history.

Cana Island Lighthouse, Baileys Harbor:

Explore Door County’s most iconic lighthouse, built in 1869 and celebrating more than 150 years of standing watch on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Ride a haywagon over the causeway to explore the island, including the 89-foot-tall tower, the original home of the lighthouse keeper and his family, and the oil house where fuel for the light was stored. 

The highlight of any Cana Island visit is climbing the 97 steps of the tower’s spiral staircase to reach the gallery deck. The outside deck delivers a sweeping view of Lake Michigan and the Door County peninsula.

While the ascent is fun for visitors, imagine the lighthouse keeper’s job as he trudged up and down the steps each night, carrying heated lard to keep the light burning!

https://dcmm.org/cana-island-lighthouse/

Door County Maritime Museum, Sturgeon Bay

Located along Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin’s busy working waterfront, the Door County Maritime Museum showcases the area’s rich maritime roots. The museum features interactive exhibits, and offers tours of the restored tugboat John Purves, along with the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower.

Hard-working anglers, brave ship captains, skilled craftsmen, bold inventors and lonely lighthouse keepers are just some of the personalities you’ll discover in the galleries of the museum.

See how these maritime pioneers worked and what they made, and you’ll understand and appreciate your visit to Door County on a deeper, more engaged level.

https://dcmm.org/door-county-maritime-museum/

Death's Door Maritime Museum, Gills Rock

The Death’s Door Maritime Museum traces the area’s commercial fishing tradition. It boasts the wooden fishing tug Hope and a replica net shed complete with fishing boxes, net reel and other traditional fishing supplies. Visitors have the rare opportunity to explore – inside and out – the 45-foot wooden fishing tug Hope. It was built in 1930 by Sturgeon Bay Boat Works and owned by the well-known Stanley Voight fishing family. A video of the tug’s final fishing trip in 1992 is also part of the exhibit.

New in 2023 is an updated photography exhibit about the Washington Island Ferry Line. The museum also features a shipwreck and scuba diving exhibit, artifacts brought up from the bottom of Lake Michigan, and information on the area’s dangerous passage known as Death’s Door. The small fishing village of Gills Rock, WI is a hidden gem located at the very tip of the Door County peninsula on the shores of Porte des Morts (Death’s Door).

https://dcmm.org/deaths-door-maritime-museum/