The Beacon - Fall 2021

HONORING OUR HISTORY BUILDING OUR FUTURE

For more than 40 years, the Door County Maritime Museum has helped celebrate and preserve our community’s rich maritime heritage. We are honored to support their mission and the legacy of our area’s shipbuilders with the construction of the new Lighthouse Tower.

MISSION STATEMENT:

The Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse Preservation Society, Inc. preserves Great Lakes maritime history, primarily focusing on Door County, Wisconsin, and provides interpretive and educational opportunities for current and future generations.

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; and the Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Terry Connelly - President

Gary King - First Vice President

John Roen Asher - Second Vice President

Bob DeNoto - Secretary

Alison Walker - Treasurer

Cheryl Arnott

John Baumgartner

Nathan Dineen

Frank Forkert

Mike Gilson

Charlie Henriksen

Pete Horton

Bob Purves

Julie Sarter

Jim Springer

Mark Weborg

Mike Wickman

Cap Wulf

MUSEUM STAFF

Kevin Osgood - Executive Director

Sam Perlman - Deputy Director & Development Manager

Cassie Buntin - Retail Sales & Visitor Services Manager

Brennan Christianson - Collections Coordinator & Site Manager

Paige Funkhouser - Community Engagement Manager

Melinda Johnson - Volunteer & Tour Coordinator

Rhys Kuzdas - Curator & Exhibits Manager

Lorraine Laboy-Roman - Office & Memberships Administrator

Melissa Scoon - Financial Systems Manager

Hal Wilson - Facilities & Cana Island Site Manager

FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK

Dear Friends,

We’ve all heard the phrase “new normal” a lot lately. When it comes to your Door County Maritime Museum, this new normal seems to redefine itself almost daily, and most of it is extremely exciting!

In the first five months of having the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower open, we’ve seen more than 21,000 guests make the trek to the top. We’ve grown quite used to having lines outside the Museum at 10am when the doors open. We even had to close the doors in Sturgeon Bay when the building reached capacity.

We’ve had more than 100 guests in a single day at

the Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock, and we continue to welcome thousands of visitor to Cana Island Lighthouse each week. We’ve done all of this while short-staffed (like most other Door County businesses). It’s tested our staff and our volunteers, but our crew meets each challenge with optimism. We are simply and proudly making it happen for our guests on a daily basis.

Thank you for your support and for picking up this copy of The Beacon, where you can learn about the past – and about the future – of YOUR Door County Maritime Museum.

Kevin Osgood - Executive Director

FUND RAISING • SAM PERLMAN

WE CONTINUE to be humbled and amazed by the generous support from our maritime community!

During the May 22 Christening of the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower, DCMM Executive Director Kevin Osgood announced a matching challenge grant to jump-start the final phase of fundraising for the $7.2 Million construction capital campaign.

“A generous (and anonymous) supporter of the Museum and the Tower pledged a matching challenge between May 22 and August 31,” said Osgood. “Our donor will match, dollar-for-dollar, the first $1,000 of all contributions made to the Maritime Lighthouse Tower project this summer,”

Wow, did the Door County community respond to the challenge! During the summer months, we received 101 donations leveraging more than $45,000 in matching funds from our anonymous donor for a total of over $90,000 by the end of August. Thank you for helping us unlock the matching challenge grant!

As we slide towards a slightly quieter time on the

peninsula, we begin to look toward the end of the year and our annual Anchor Appeal. These general operation funds keep our doors open to the public year-round in Sturgeon Bay, and help our staff operate three seasonal museum properties: the 102-year-old tug John Purves docked on the working waterfront at the Museum in Sturgeon Bay; the iconic Cana Island Lighthouse in Baileys Harbor; and the Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock.

For the second year in a row, we have a matching challenge for our year-end Anchor Appeal. This time, DCMM Board member Pete Horton and his wife Jelaine have provided a $25,000 matching gift. Pete and Jelaine will match every contribution to the Anchor Appeal, to a total of $50,000. Any contribution to the Museum’s general operations before December 31 will count towards the match. Visit http://www.dcmm.org/donationsmembership/donations/ to make your contribution today.

YOU matter. This is YOUR Door County Maritime Museum.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

A NERR DOOR OPENS

STORY BY NATHAN ERICKSON

Have you heard? There’s a “NERR” center coming to Northeast Wisconsin! Like a new sheriff, the planned National Estuarine Research Reserve is a cooperative federal agency that partners with the local and state government. The NERR will host year-round, publicly oriented research, education, stewardship, and training on the coastal flora and fauna of Green Bay and Lake Michigan.

Presently there are 29 NERR locations in the United States. For the next year, the Northeast Wisconsin cities of Green Bay, Marinette, and Sturgeon Bay are positioning to be the host of one of the three new Reserves anticipated to open nationally by 2025. The community that wins the honor will reap the direct benefits of hosting the Bay of Green Bay NERR. The decision will be announced in August 2022. What impact with the Reserve have on the chosen community? What impact will the Reserve have on neighboring communities? DCMM had conversations with Emily Tyner, Director of Freshwater Strategy at UWGB and regional representative of the NERR, and Josh Van Lieshout, City Administrator for Sturgeon Bay, to discuss how the Reserve may bring our littoral communities closer together.

An estuary is a site where a stream or river meets a large body of water, such as a sea, lake, or bay. The Bay of Green Bay in Northeast Wisconsin (N.E.W.) is one of the largest freshwater estuaries in the world.

NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE (NERR)

Tyner envisions the NERR’s services to be available across the region. From lands and reserves already publicly owned, data collected will be used to monitor fish and wildlife populations, pollution levels, climate change, algal blooms, the effects of coastal land development, commercial fishing, and more. At the proposed visitor center, aquariums, lecture halls, archives, laboratories, and more could be built and available for public use and visits. Generations of eco-tourism have already primed Door County’s infrastructure for a reinvigorated surge of nature lovers to arrive.

Tyner envisions that the Reserve will impact N.E.W. communities outside of the host city, beyond simply providing data points in slideshows. More official exposure will lead to an increase of better informed visitors discovering natural areas, and K-12 classrooms getting involved with the natural environment for leisure, schools, and careers.

The agency’s goals for a Bay of Green Bay NERR are to identify points of concern and then investigate them fully, lending their results to be used by public, private, corporate, government, and NGO agencies. NERR official statements are to be without conflicts of interest or open agendas to sway public opinion; only the pursuit of objective data and its public dissemination.

Reviewing the NERR selection criteria (Figure 1), Sturgeon Bay is an ideal location for a Reserve, in almost every category. The only two areas of disadvantage are the lack of a research university within the City, and a population of less than 10,000.

The NERR site will require full-time staff to conduct fieldwork, provide educational resources at the station, and engage with local organizations throughout the region. A director will maintain the station with support from seasonal and full-time employees, interns, student researchers, and non-specialized staff. Scholars (and their external funds) are also invited to use the resources of the facilities and specialists.

The exact specifics for the new Reserve are still being determined. For reference, the Lake Superior NERR located in Superior, Wisconsin, is privy to 16,697 acres with ten permanent specialized staff members, six student and fellowship researchers, and droves of volunteers. Tyner hopes for a similar, perhaps even larger arrangement and would “love for us to eventually have a volunteer Friends of the Green Bay NERR group.”

The future Reserve’s research will mostly be supported by scientists through UW Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee, with room for cooperation with other research and academic agencies.

Both Tyner and Van Lieshout said the state and the NERR staff will secure funding for the Reserve. The annual arrangement is that 70% - approximately $758,000 - will come from the federal government for basic operations, while Wisconsin must match the remaining 30% - a proportion of around $324,800 per year. That money will come from grants, donations, donation matching programs, and tax redistribution. Public infrastructure such as parking lots, docks and bulkheads would be made available to the NERR by the site’s municipality.

Cooperation and transparency will be essential to ensure growth and longevity for both the NERR and all existing local services

“Ideally the Reserve visitor center is a place where tourists and researchers can stop and get information before venturing out to the many sites of the NERR for things like bird-watching, hiking, fishing, kayaking, etc.,” said Tyner.

The undeniable advantage of the planned center is the focus and production of cutting-edge, evidence-based knowledge on the waters surrounding Door County. Regardless of whether the City of Sturgeon Bay is chosen as the site of the Green Bay NERR, organizations such as

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Environmental Protection Agency, The Shedd Aquarium, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and others have a history of study around the Door peninsula, and they will continue to do so whichever city hosts the NERR.

Regardless of the final Green Bay NERR location, it is clear that the services soon to be available will span across the region’s estuaries. A family already on a weekend vacation may need to decide if it is worth their time to drive to another city for a nature center, but with the grand scope of pending educational opportunities, those that reside by the waters may not need to go too far from their hometowns for a world class experience. Scientists, companies, university students, K-12 students, and tourists alike in northeast Wisconsin are about to have a more informed, enriching, sustainable experience in the waters that make our home so special. As Van Lieshout put it, a federal agency like NERR “enables further diversification of the local economy and new career opportunities for the next generation of families.”

The ambitions are generational in scope, therefore, starting with the right team, community plan, building infrastructure, technology, and funding, are crucial first steps to ensure the NERR is set up for long-term success. Now we must patiently wait for the announcement in August 2022…

National Estuarine Research Reserve System Sites.

STORY BY RHYS KUZDAS

Leathem D. Smith with scale model of Safeway Container Prototype (1945) - DCMM

of Safeway Containers Headlines from Portlight (1945) - DCMM

Safe arrival of the Safeway Container loaded with goods in Puerto Rico (1945) - DCMM

CLAIMS TO INVENTING THE SHIPPING CONTAINER

The legacy of an invention used daily to keep today’s global economy ticking like clockwork, is questioned and challenged by rivals of its inventor. The question of who conceived the shipping container and shipping system – those rectangular cubes that stack like Legos interchangeable onto freighters, railways and trucks –begins in 1922.

The inventor of the shipping container and shipping container system is often attributed to the American businessman Malcom McLean. He designed, built, and sailed shipping containers in 1956 and was awarded with a patent in 1958. The press of the time hailed it as a previously unseen innovation.

However, rival claims exist. The Fruehaf Trailer Company claims their Vice President of engineering, Keith Tantlinger, was the inventor, when they designed the units earlier in the 1950s and then sold them to McLean’s Sea-Land Service. It could be considered semantics, that Tantlinger and McLean were just flipsides of the same coin for a shared shipping legacy.

A decade prior, however, the notion of using containers to ship goods across water was the solution the U.S. Army and Transportation Corps devised for protecting its large ammunition shipments. In 1947, USATC developed “transporters”, loading ships with steel boxes off trucks and trains for transportation to foreign ports, which included the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War.

We can go even further back and consider Benjamin Franklin Fitch. Largely thought of as the father of containerization in the United States, his patents and intermodal system date back to 1922. He laid the groundwork for

connecting road and rail into one standardized shipping system. His design for a 20-foot steel container could easily be confused for the ones used today.

HOW DO WE EVALUATE CLAIMS?

These claims bring into question how we determine the question and define our terms between inventing the modern shipping container, and the modern shipping container system as a whole.

Any claim to inventing the shipping container needs to fulfill all of the following prerequisites: First is origination of the concept, recognized by being patented. Second, is that it physically existed, that it was prototyped and manufactured. Third is that the container was standardized, meaning that it could be interchangeable. Fourth, these containers were reusable, a distinction from containers of the past. Finally, the containers need to be stackable, allowing for the maximization of cargo within limited spaces.

In regards to inventing the modern shipping container system, the following must be true: it must be intermodal, capable of moving between different transportation infrastructures like rail and sea. Containers all need to be loaded directly on and off ships without first having to unload and reload cargo. Finally, containers should have been purchased and used in actually transporting cargo over water between destinations.

Whoever accomplished all of the above may legitimately stake a claim to having been the inventor of the modern commercial shipping revolution.

BEFORE THE SHIPPING CONTAINER

Prior to the advent of containerization, the method of shipping goods by sea was an eclectic affair. While bulk goods like coal or stone could be shipped loose in the holds of freighters, manufactured products required their own packaging. An entire industry was built

around making, and moving, this packaging. Whether it was a barrel of molasses, a bag of coffee, or a box of radios, each item had to be loaded, stowed, and unloaded by hand, often in very different ship holds. Teams of dockyard workers, with names like stevedores, dockers, or longshoreman, filled this critical role.

These jobs were harsh and demanding. Even leading into the 20th century, the task was almost exclusively performed by the disenfranchised and poor. Slaves were used extensively in the American south: following emancipation it remained one of the few areas of employment for recently freed Black Americans. Conditions were not much better in northern ports, where immigrants fresh off the boat could find themselves working to load the next one. Strikes, and the pain they gave companies, were common and the plight of the dockyard worker was often used as an argument for labor rights.

The dilemma of moving cargo was not a recent one and attempts at standardization go back centuries. Historic terms like “bushel”, cord”, “bale”, and “peck” were well known in recent past because they represented common amounts and containers used for shipping. The most recognizable leftover of this is the “ton/ tonne” which originated in the massive barrels used to ship wine.

Large “Intermodal” box containers arrived in the late 19th & early 20th century as rail expanded. In 1932, the first railway container hub opened up in Enola, PA, pioneered by the

CONTAINER WARS

aforementioned Benjamin Fitch. Of various sizes and shapes, these containers could be switched between railcars and onto trucks but proved unsuitable for use on ships. This usually meant that a railcar might deliver a container to the dock, but then have its cargo unloaded by hand onto the ship.

TRANSPORTING GOODS DURING WAR

World War II highlighted the flaws in commercial infrastructure and became a catalyst for change. The Allies transportation needs, with farflung theaters of war, was a logistical challenge unseen before in history.

Much attention is placed on campaigns and the factory floors at home. Equally important was the movement of supplies from the factory to the troops participating in the battles. Shipbuilders, merchant mariners, dockyard workers, and more all had to work in synchronicity to move even a single bullet, tire, or ration. Thousands of freighters, tenders, and other ships were built to exact specifications to suit their roles and cargos. This represented a significant leap forward in the standardization of shipping and methods.

As the conflict neared end and Europe lay in ruin, there were expectations that the post-war landscape would lead to an economic boom for the United States and its now greatly expanded transport capacity. Many companies were eager to capitalize on this, particularly one local Wisconsin shipbuilding company.

LEATHEM D. SMITH

To say that Leathem D. Smith was a force on the Great Lakes would be an understatement. Born September 7, 1886 in Sturgeon Bay, Smith had been raised from a young age in all aspects of the stone and transport business by his father, Thomas Smith. By the turn of the century, he was already innovating and improving his father’s holdings.

After the death of his father, the young Smith acquired the business and ran with it, renaming it several times and expanding in new areas. During the 1920s he continued to patent and invent new transportation methods for bulk goods, including the first scrapper-type self-unloader installed on the freighter Fontana. He was able to navigate through the Great Depression, narrowly preventing liquidation in 1933 before being able to take advantage of World War II contracts to rapidly expand his shipyard. By 1944, Leathem D. Smith had built one of the largest shipyards on the Great Lakes. However, much of this success was tied to military contracts. With the war ending, a new direction was needed.

FINDING A NEW SOLUTION TO AN OLD PROBLEM

Leathem D. Smith had witnessed how the cost of loading goods had strangled the Great Lakes shipping businesses of the 1800s out of existence. The efficiencies in containerization in rail transportation meant trains could deliver cheaper than ships. Freighters shifted more towards

shipping bulk cargos or the actual train cars themselves. Smith figured that if a way could be found to take advantage of the rail container system currently in place, and be reinvented with a new class of freighters, the commercial potential was limitless.

Smith assembled a team of designers in 1944: Howard Hunt, the former plate steel superintendent, was placed in charge of production. Others involved included Henry King, Richard A. Stearn, Elton Washburn, and Carl Christianson. This team worked through the waning months of WWII to solve the high cost of freight handling caused by having to sort shipments, long load times, and “shortage” caused by cargo getting damaged or stolen.

The container itself needed to be able hold different goods, be filled by manufacturers at their factories, and be locked and sealed to prevent loss. It also needed to be moved easily, stackable, and strong enough withstand loading. Similar to the naval freighters he built for the war, Smith also started designing new ships with expanded holds and onboard cranes designed for these containers. These ships would have everything: they would move the containers to shore and back, greatly reducing the number of dockworkers needed, and more importantly to business concerns, they would reduce employment costs.

Consideration was also taken on what happened after offloading. By tailoring their design to common rail and trucking standards, these self-unloaders could transfer the containers directly from ship to shore without interruption. This created a truly intermodal system with numbered and sealed containers that could be tracked logistically without opening them. The design the team ultimately agreed upon followed the same dimensions of the existing railway container of the New York Central Railroad but modified the containers to accommodate sea transport.

THE SAFEWAY CONTAINER SYSTEM

The first standardized shipping container system, known as the Safeway Container, was revealed at the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company in 1945. The container itself had a floor area of 7’ x 9’ and a height of about 7.5’. The units were also collapsible so that, when

not carrying cargo, they could be folded to save space. Each container had reinforcing steel frames with linings of plywood and a painted steel or aluminum shell. Legs were added that could fit into molded grooves on the top corners of each unit. This allowed forklift and crane access but more importantly made them stackable by locking them together in a way similar to Lego bricks. The structural strength of this design meant they could be safely stacked four high.

A patent was filed in October 1946, and awarded in January 1949. The patents also included a new class of freighter, designed for the Great Lakes, which could also easily navigate the St. Lawrence Seaway for cross-oceanic travel. The vision was that Smith could build both containers and ships that delivered to ports around the globe. These Safeway ships had their own offloading equipment, an accessible hold, and were reinforced with a double hull that strengthened the entire length of the vessel.

Designed specifically with the seaworthiness of a fully loaded container ship in mind, the hold would be two containers deep, and still be seaworthy with another two containers above deck. It was estimated that when fully loaded, each container could hold eight tons of goods; that 660 containers could be transported and discharged off the ship, with an equal number then being loaded in about 16 hours, at a substantial cost savings.

The first prototype was completed in early 1945. In June of that same year, the Safeway Container division of the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. was awarded a contract by the Agwilines Steampship Co. of New York (later the Ward Line) for cargo shipments to and from the Caribbean. The first shipment of Safeway Containers (five

CONTAINER WARS

rigid, twenty collapsible) with two lifting lock hoists were delivered, and in October 1945 they were used successfully for the first time. Safeway containers were used to ship a full cargo, including a load of rum, from Puerto Rico to New York. It arrived without a single broken or lost bottle. Not only did this beat the first container shipment made by McLean by over decade, it was also the first container shipment between two ports on different landmasses.

EARLY END TO A PROMISING LEGACY

Leathem D. Smith would not live long enough to see his new venture bear fruit. On June 23, 1946, he drowned along with three others when his sloop, Half-Moon, sank in a sudden squall off the coast of Door County. Victims included Elton Washburn and Howard Hunt, who both were instrumental to the Safeway project. This tragedy left the future of his company and its Safeway Container division in the hands of his widow Anna Smith. Despite profitable projections by management, the widow Smith pushed for the rapid liquidation of the company.

The Dravo Corporation of Pittsburgh, PA was approached to purchase the licensing rights of the Safeway Container system. They quickly accepted the prospective offer and one month later, the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. disclosed its customer lists, blueprints, and records connected with Safeway to the Dravo Corporation. What should have been a straightforward exchange had an unexpected turn...

Rejecting their previous agreement, Dravo decided to pull out of the deal and instead began producing shipping containers of their own design. The Dravo Corporation was sued for breach of confidential relationship and patent infringement on January 14, 1949. The case escalated to the Seventh Circuit Court. It was not until 1954 that the lawsuit was finally resolved in the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company’s favor. The Dravo Corporation entered into a

10-year agreement to pay royalties for the container design. It was moot however, as by that time the Smith’s company had long ceased to be.

The Dravo Corporation itself would later be acquired by the Carmeuse Corporation in 1998 and ruling of Smith vs. Dravo is still used in case law as an example of trade secret violation.

DETERMINING CREDIT FOR A SHIPPING REVOLUTION

The Safeway Shipping Container story clearly shows that not only did Leathem D. Smith and the employees of the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. design the shipping container, they built it, they sold it, and it was demonstrated and used on the open water. In that way, the legacy of 20th century commercial shipping revolution is exclusively his.

REFERENCES:

Christianson, Carl Raymond. Ship Building and Boat Building in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin: From the Beginning to 1985. C.R. Christianson, 1989.

Ham, Hans van, and Joan Rijsenbrij. Development of Containerization: Success through Vision, Drive and Technology. IOS Press, 2012.

LDSSBC. “First Shipment of Safeway Containers.” Port Light, 1 Oct. 1945.

Lewandowski, Krzysztof. “Benjamin Franklin Fitch the Forgotten Developer of the Container System in US of America.” Global Journal of Human-Social Science, vol. 15, no. 9, 2015.

Mayo, Anthony J, and Nitin Nohria. “The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping.” HBS Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School, 3 Oct. 2005

Sharda. “Keith Tantlinger- The Story of the Man Who Invented the Shipping Cargo Container.” Marine Insight, 12 Dec. 2019

Whelan, P. J. “Trade Secrets - Problems of Acquistion.” The Business Lawyer, vol. 18, no. 2, American Bar Association, 1963

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

AL CURTIS

STORY BY MELINDA JOHNSON

THE DOOR COUNTY Maritime Museum has many kind and generous volunteers. I would like to introduce you to DCMM volunteer Al Curtis.

Al had no direct connection with Door County’s maritime history before he moved to the peninsula, but in a short time, he has become a very active and valuable DCMM volunteer. Al was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His career centered around journalism, public relations and marketing, prior to retirement. Al has lived and worked in Wisconsin, Virginia and North Carolina. Even though he was not involved with maritime history, he did have a close friend who introduced him to sailing, which sparked his maritime interest.

Al is married to Jan Livingston, a native of Sturgeon Bay, and they have two adult daughters. The Curtis’ found

themselves frequently visiting Door County for their summer vacations.

When Al and Jan decided to retire in 2016, they moved to Sturgeon Bay with their two Golden Retrievers. According to Al, he became a volunteer at the Door County Maritime Museum when Jan threatened his life if he did not find something to do other than follow her around the house! Now I know Jan, and I am sure she was only kidding, but we are sure glad he took the threat seriously. Fortunately for DCMM, Jan’s best friend was working for the Door County Maritime Museum at the time, and she asked him to help out at one of the museum’s events. That was all it took for DCMM to hook Al as a volunteer. He soon heard DCMM was in need of docents on the Tugboat John Purves to give tours. He told me it is a great volunteer job.

“Where else can you feel like the owner of a 101-year-old, 149-foot tugboat?”

Al finds being a docent very gratifying, plus he gets to blow the horn! Al said he can tell when the guests have enjoyed the tour. He finds that very rewarding, and feels a sense of pride. Al modestly added that he was not living in Door County during the restoration of the tug, and has said: “Those people have done some serious volunteer work!”

Al has also cooked at the Classic & Wooden Boat Festival, hauled things to and from storage, helped with the maintenance of the tug and winter caretaking, served fish sandwiches at Gills Rock on the 4th of July, and has helped the curator with scanning and cataloging vintage photos in the museum’s archives.

Al’s advice for anyone considering volunteering for the Museum: “Don’t be shy. Team up with someone for the day and see what it is like to be a volunteer. Everyone can contribute, and it’s a great feeling to be doing something so wide reaching.”

You have Al’s personal guarantee that you will meet remarkable people.

2021 CALENDAR OF EVENTS BY PAIGE

MAKE PLANS to join, learn, enjoy, and support, the Door County Maritime Museum at one of these upcoming events!

MERRY-TIMES @ DCMM

Joyously celebrate the holidays at the Museum in Sturgeon Bay! Take a stroll around dozens of beautifully decorated trees and decorations on display in the museum. Fantastically decorated by local businesses, organizations and residents, each of these extraordinary trees is adorned with beautiful ornaments and special surprises. Best of all, every tree will go home with a lucky winner in our Merry-Time Festival of Trees raffle!

There will be many special days through out the Festival, but none as special as Family Day & Santa at the Museum on Saturday, November 13 . Children are invited to the Museum for holiday activities, and to explore the Museum beginning at 10am. Santa is scheduled to arrive via U.S. Coast Guard boat at 10am, and will visit with children from 10:30am-2pm. All children 17 and younger accompanied by an adult receive free admission to the museum on November 13 AND all Sundays throughout the Festival: November 14, 21, 28, December 5, 12, 19, 26, & January 2.

The Festival culminates with the annual Jingle Mixer Gala on Tuesday, December 14. Wear your holiday finery, and make plans to join us for an evening of catered hors d'oeuvres, open bar, live music, auctions, and fun! Tickets for the Jingle Mixer Gala are limited and go on sale November 1, at www. DoorCountyTickets.com. Museum guests can begin bidding on auction packages online on Wednesday, December 1.

2021/2022 MARITIME SPEAKER SERIES

Each Fall, Winter and Spring, DCMM hosts experts and interesting characters from around the country for the Maritime Speaker Series (presented in partnership with series sponsor Door County Medical Center). The Maritime Speaker Series offers an assortment of monthly programs - from historical topics to current issues affecting the Great Lakes and the economy that relies on them. Programs are the first Thursday of each month, November through May, beginning at 7 pm, on the second floor of the Museum, and online. No cost to attend; suggested donation of a non-perishable food item, or if watching online, we ask you to make a food donation to your local food pantry.

October 7: 150th anniversary presentation on Peshtigo Fire, Barb (Englebert) Chisholm

November 4: Shipwrecks!, PBS Wisconsin

December 2: Marquette & the Ho-Chunk, Dr. Patrick Jung

January 6: The Legend of Death's Door, Brennan Christianson

February 3: Wisconsin Shipwrecks, Tamara Thomsen

March 3: Women shippers and traders on the Great Lakes, Dr. Victoria Brehm

April 7: Sea Shanties with Northern Sky Theater

May 5: America’s Cup Sailing, Daniel LaMere

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:

November 13: Santa at the Museum & Family Day

November 13-January 2: Merry-Time Festival of Trees on display, raffle ticket sales

December 14: Jingle Mixer Gala

January 3: Raffle drawing for Merry-Time Festival of Trees

March 19: St. Patrick’s Day Parade

April 1: 2022 Lighthouse Festival Tickets on Sale

FUNKHOUSER

Door County’s first choice for all of your IT needs!

Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company yards during the height of World War II construction (1940s). From the DCMM archives.