The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is a

maritime museum A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the militar ...

in the

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

port and shipbuilding city of Manitowoc,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It preserves and teaches about the maritime history of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

and Wisconsin.

History

The museum was founded in 1969 as the Manitowoc Submarine Memorial Association. The '' USS Cobia'' arrived in Manitowoc and was initially restored in 1970, and in 1986 became part of the museum as well as becoming a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and joining the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The submarine has been restored and has one of the oldest operational radar systems in the world. The ''Cobia'' was dry docked in 1996, and in 2022 the museum received a $500,000 grant to dry dock the ''Cobia'' again for regular maintenance and repairs.

Exhibits

The museum offers guided tours of the ''Cobia'' as well as overnight stays on the submarine. In addition to the ''Cobia'', the museum displays the 65-ton ''Chief Wawatam'' steam engine and exhibits on shipbuilding and shipwrecks in Wisconsin, a model ship gallery, children's play exhibits and a temporary exhibit gallery.

References

External links

Wisconsin Maritime Museum website
Museums established in 1968 Maritime museums in Wisconsin Museums in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Museums of the Great Lakes {{Wisconsin-museum-stub

History

Exhibits

See also

References

External links