Manitowoc

As of 2015. Hours, prices and phone numbers on this page are kept as the original site listed them (captured May 7, 2015). Check current information with each attraction before you go.

Late's

1924 S. 9^th St., Manitowoc, open 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Sat.-Thurs., 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday

A Manitowoc tradition for more than 55 years! Stop in for cheese curds or a perch lunch.

Cedar Crest Plant & Ice Cream Parlor

2000 S. 10^th St., open 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun.-Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri. and Sat.

Look for the big cow and stop in for rich and creamy ice cream.

Beerntsen’s Confectionary

108 N. 8^th St., Manitowoc, open daily 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Step back in time to an old fashioned candy and malt shop. The menu includes classics like grilled cheese sandwiches with Campbell's tomato soup.

Added in 2026

The three stops above are what the old site chose to call Manitowoc's "gems": a lunch counter, an ice cream parlor shaped around a big fiberglass cow, and a candy shop. They were small-town picks on purpose. What the page left out is the reason most people drive to Manitowoc at all: the waterfront at the mouth of the Manitowoc River.

Population (2020 census): 34,626
County: Manitowoc County, of which it is the seat
On the river mouth: Wisconsin Maritime Museum and USS Cobia
Car ferry: S.S. Badger to Ludington, Michigan, May to October

Shipbuilding town

Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built 28 submarines here during World War II, along with landing craft and fuel barges; employment peaked at about 7,000. In the late 1960s its owner moved shipbuilding to Sturgeon Bay. Burger Boat Company, founded as the H. Burger Shipyard in 1863, still builds custom yachts in the city. USS Cobia, moored beside the museum since 1970, was built in Connecticut but is a Gato-class boat, like half of the Manitowoc-built submarines, which is why she was brought here as a memorial.

What has changed since 2015

The S.S. Badger became a National Historic Landmark in January 2016 and changed owners in December 2020, when Interlake Steamship Company bought her. Cobia went back into dry dock in 2025, a project of about $1.5 million. The original sentence calling the lunch counter "a tradition for more than 55 years" was written about 2012; nobody should take the hours above as current.

Sources: Wikipedia articles on Manitowoc, Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Burger Boat Company, SS Badger and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (read November 2026); US Census 2020.

Questions visitors ask

Is Manitowoc a good base for the whole Schooner Coast?

It works for the southern half. Two Rivers is about ten minutes up the shore and Kewaunee roughly half an hour on Highway 42. If you plan to spend time in Sturgeon Bay, a second night farther north saves a lot of driving back.

Can I ride the S.S. Badger as a day trip from Manitowoc?

The crossing to Ludington, Michigan takes about four hours each way, so a same-day round trip is a long day on the water. The ship sails seasonally, May to October; check the Lake Michigan Carferry schedule before planning around it.

Were the Manitowoc submarines all lost or scrapped?

None of the 28 Manitowoc-built boats survives in the city. USS Cobia, the submarine you can tour at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, came from Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and stands in for them.

Original text restored from the Wayback Machine capture of May 7, 2015. Typos and dead links were tidied; nothing else in the original section was rewritten. How this archive works.