Hit the beach running or at least, let the kids do it!
Ribbons of freshwater beaches run all along the Schooner Coast. And, each beach has its own personality and charm. You'll find small protected coves, wide sandy stretches, rolling dunes, soft white sand and smooth pebble shores. Splash in the clear, clean water, jump into the waves and sculpt sand castles on the beach. Enjoy nature's beauty.
Go ahead. Play on it!
The Schooner Coast is dotted with genuine maritime relics that are nearly indestructible and perfect for kids to climb all over. An anchor from the barge Emerald and a propeller from the tug Ludington are both in Kewaunee. Red and green buoys, plus the propeller from the tugboat John Purves, line the waterfront at the Door County Maritime Museum.
Believe it or not – submarines were made in Manitowoc!
During World War II, the United States government wanted a shipyard far inland to build submarines. The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company was tapped. More than 7,000 men and women working round the clock 365 days a year turned out 28 submarines. USS Cobia, docked alongside the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, is similar to the Manitowoc-made subs. Cobia is a National Historic Landmark and open daily for guided tours.
Tour a hard-working Great Lakes tug.
During her 80-plus years, the mighty tug John Purves towed everything from massive miles-long log rafts to 12,000-ton freighters. In fact, she was known as one of the hardest working and strongest tugboats on the Great Lakes. Built in 1919, she’s been meticulously restored and is open daily during the summer for guided tours. See her crew cabins, winch room, engine room, galley and pilot house.
Take in the beauty of Lake Michigan and her towering lighthouses.
The Schooner Coast boasts a collection of seven lighthouses, which were built as beacons to schooners and ships sailing Lake Michigan’s sometimes rough and stormy waters. Each lighthouse has its own unique shape and color. Some are square, others are cylindrical. Some are white and some are shades of red. Kewaunee’s is white with a red roof. Visitors can walk along the pier to get a close-up look at the Kewaunee Pierhead Lighthouse.
Lose yourself on a quiet paddle down our rivers.
Explore the waterways of the Schooner Coast. Rent a kayak or canoe and enjoy the natural beauty and solitude of the rivers. Toss in a line or just float along. As you’re doing that, imagine the bravery and spirit of the early fur trappers and traders who originally navigated and explored the rivers and then settled the area.
The bountiful waters of Lake Michigan.
The waters of Lake Michigan are a fishing paradise. In fact, Algoma has billed itself the "Sport Fishing Capital of the Great Lakes." Each day, sport fishing charters ferry anglers eager to land a trophy fish. Chinook and coho salmon, brown, rainbow and lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, musky and northern pike are all there for the taking.
Every day this summer, see history steam into port!
The S.S. Badger is the largest car ferry ever to sail Lake Michigan. She is a national treasure, offering an authentic steamship experience from an earlier time when a sea voyage was the ultimate travel and vacation adventure. The 410-foot S.S. Badger sails daily between Manitowoc and Ludington, Michigan from mid-May through mid-October.
Come to Where it All Began
Wisconsin's Schooner Coast
One hundred years ago, schooners crisscrossed Lake Michigan and people came to the coast to make a living. On docks and in ports. Aboard merchant ships and fishing vessels. In towns and villages.
Today, people come here to have fun. And what fun it is. Discover Wisconsin’s newest – and oldest – destination. The Schooner Coast.
Enjoy sixty miles of beaches and boardwalks, lighthouses and sand dunes, harbors and museums, cafes and shops stretching along Lake Michigan from the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc to the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay.
It’s an unforgettable sixty-mile slice of Wisconsin’s natural waters and maritime history.
The two anchors of the coast
Wisconsin Maritime Museum
Manitowoc · USS Cobia
Door County Maritime Museum
Sturgeon Bay · tug John Purves
Official sites. This archive is not affiliated with either museum.
Coast Guides added in 2026
- Shipwrecks of the CoastEvery National Register shipwreck from Manitowoc to Sturgeon Bay in one table, which ones you can see from shore, and what the 2021 marine sanctuary protects.
- Lighthouses of the Schooner CoastEight lighthouses from Manitowoc to Sturgeon Bay: years built, heights, National Register status and how close you can get, from Rawley Point to the canal.
- The Christmas Tree ShipThe Rouse Simmons, Captain Santa and the November 1912 storm: the last sighting off Kewaunee, the 1971 discovery of the wreck and where its relics are now.
- USS Cobia, Tugs & Car FerriesUSS Cobia, the tugs Ludington and John Purves, the fish tug Buddy O, the S.S. Badger and Ann Arbor No. 1: the submarine, tugs and car ferries of the coast.
- The Denis SullivanHow volunteers built the schooner Denis Sullivan in Milwaukee, why she was sold to World Ocean School in 2022, and where the ship sails today in 2026.
- Salmon & Trout FishingChinook, coho and trout off Kewaunee and Algoma: why salmon live in Lake Michigan, the Kewaunee River fish ladder, seasons, licenses, charters and piers.
- Three Days on the CoastA three-day Lake Michigan road trip from Manitowoc to Sturgeon Bay: USS Cobia, Rawley Point, the Kewaunee fish ladder, Algoma's harbor and the ship canal.
- Winter on the PeninsulaDoor County in winter: how far Lake Michigan freezes, the Sturgeon Bay winter fleet, the Washington Island ferry, three winter events and a February escape.
Researching the Schooner Coast for students & local historians
For a sixty-mile stretch of shore, this coast is unusually well documented. Twenty-five shipwreck sites between Manitowoc and Sturgeon Bay are on the National Register of Historic Places, and each listing rests on a nomination file that records the vessel, how she was lost and what divers found on the bottom. Add the lighthouse files, the car ferries and a century of harbor newspapers, and a school paper on almost any of the stories on this site has primary sources behind it.
Where the records are
Start with the nomination files themselves, which the National Park Service and the National Archives make available, and with the Wisconsin Historical Society, whose maritime archaeologists wrote many of the shipwreck nominations and run the Wisconsin Shipwrecks database with Wisconsin Sea Grant. Our shipwreck table gives the listing year for each wreck, which makes the files easy to find.
Citing them properly
A register nomination is a government document with a preparer, a listing date and a reference number, so it should not be cited like a web page. Most classes ask for APA, and a clear APA style guide for citations and reference lists covers reports and archival documents. Whatever the style, give the reference number and say where you found the file; the next researcher will thank you.
Studying it for real
If a paper turns into a career, the Great Lakes have a short list of schools for it. The Great Lakes Maritime Academy at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City has trained deck and engineering officers since 1969, for the lakes and for ocean shipping. Maritime history and underwater archaeology usually run through a university history or anthropology department and summer field schools. If you are still weighing a two-year program, a four-year degree or a certificate, especially as an adult going back to school, a short college finder quiz is a sensible first step before you start writing to admissions offices.