Enjoy Our Events

Wisconsin’s Schooner Coast is packed with fun and interesting maritime events. At each one, you’ll get to meet the genuine folks who live and work along the coast.

Upcoming Events...

Pirates: Ship to Shore
May and ongoing

May 1, 2013

Dress in pirate garb, board a rogue ship, fire a cannon and much more, 920-743-5958, Door County Maritime Museum,... Read More

Bells and Whistles, Flags and Flashes: Lost Languages of the Lakes
May and ongoing

May 1, 2013

Send a message in Morse code, spell your name with flags or communicate with a whistle, 866-724-2356, Wisconsin... Read More

See more events ...

Added in 2026

The listings above are from 2012 and 2013 and stay as the original site printed them. Several of the coast's maritime traditions are still going. Dates below come from the organizers' own pages as of November 2026; confirm before you travel.

The Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay lists its 35th Door County Classic & Wooden Boat Show for August 1 and 2, 2026, on the museum grounds and the waterfront promenade (museum page). The archive keeps the 2012 listing of the festival.
The Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc lists Christmas Tree Ship Day for December 5, 2026, with Santa arriving by fish tug with a load of trees (museum site), a nod to the Rouse Simmons.
The Kewaunee Pierhead Lighthouse opened for public tours on five Saturdays between May and October 2026, two of them marked as Lighthouse Passport Days on the tour schedule (tour schedule).
Wisconsin DNR opens its fish facilities to visitors during the autumn salmon run; in 2025 the open houses were held on October 11 (DNR announcement). See the salmon and trout guide for the Kewaunee facility.

The calendars above start in 2013. The archive also keeps the earlier ones: August 2011, and for 2012 May, June, July and August, the summer the Denis Sullivan made her Schooner Coast voyage.

Questions visitors ask

Are the events on this page still held?

The listings are archived from 2012 and 2013, so dates, phone numbers and prices are historical. Some traditions continue, including the Classic & Wooden Boat Show in Sturgeon Bay and Christmas Tree Ship Day in Manitowoc; check the organizers before planning around one.

When is the busiest time for maritime events on the coast?

Summer weekends, with the wooden boat show in early August. Autumn has the salmon run and fish facility open houses, and early December has the Christmas Tree Ship celebration.

Can you still spend the night aboard USS Cobia?

Yes. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum still runs overnight stays on the submarine, the modern version of the family overnights advertised on this page in 2012 and 2013.

Original text restored from the Wayback Machine capture of July 8, 2015. Typos and dead links were tidied; nothing else in the original section was rewritten. How this archive works.