Company Profile
Door County Maritime Museum
Company Overview
The Door County Maritime Museum is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the maritime history and heritage of the Great Lakes with a focus on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, the Museum includes a 20,000 square foot flagship facility in the City of Sturgeon Bay, the museum tug John Purves, the historic Cana Island Lighthouse, and a smaller seasonal museum in the quaint fishing village of Gills Rock near the shores of the famous Port des Morts (“Death’s Door”) passage at the Door Peninsula’s northern tip.
Company History
The Door County Maritime Museum is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich maritime heritage of the Door Penisula. I became the Museum’s Executive Director in 2008.
In the late 1960’s a group of divers and commercial fishermen in the Gills Rock area began planning the creation of a maritime museum. With the signing of incorporation documents on July 5, 1969, the Door County Maritime Museum was born. With the support of local businessmen, civic groups and individual citizens, these pioneers began assembling the artifacts that would become the foundation of the Museum’s collection. They also raised the funds necessary for construction of the Museum’s first building in Gills Rock.
Shortly thereafter, Ray Christianson, the retired President of the Christy Corporation, proposed that a branch of the Museum be organized to collect and house artifacts chronicling the area’s extraordinary shipbuilding history. The former Roen Steamship Company office adjacent to Sturgeon Bay’s working waterfront became this new branch’s first home.
During these years, the Museum also acquired the lease to the historic Cana Island Light Station from the United States Coast Guard, allowing the Museum to open the island and lighthouse to the public each summer.
From these humble beginnings, the Door County Maritime Museum and Lighthouse Preservation Society has grown to become a world-class maritime museum headquartered in its 20,000 square foot flagship facility on Sturgeon Bay’s waterfront. This magnificent facility includes the immaculately restored historic tugboat John Purves.
The Museum’s original facility in Gills Rock has been improved and expanded and now includes a unique wing housing the classic wooden fish-tug Hope. The Museum remains the “keeper” at Cana Island through a highly successful partnership with the County of Door that received formal transfer of the property from the Bureau of Land Management in 2007.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the maritime history and heritage of the Great Lakes with a focus on Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula, the Museum includes a 20,000 square foot flagship facility in Sturgeon Bay, the museum tug John Purves, the historic Cana Island Lighthouse, and a smaller seasonal museum in Gills Rock near the shores of the famous Port des Morts (“Death’s Door”) passage at the Peninsula’s northern tip.