STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin tourist destinations, including the Door County Maritime Museum, will get millions of dollars in help from the state. Governor Tony Evers announced the state’s investing nearly $22-million into the Tourism Capital Investment Grant Program.
The museum received $1.75 million in grants to help expand their Sturgeon Bay location with the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower.
“That kind of funding is critically important…With this grant money, we’re able to just tie up this project and be able to complete it and pay everything for it,” said Executive Director Kevin Osgood. “This particular grant is significant in that where it comes in the project, its timing couldn’t be better…This type of money coming into this project at this point means we can really focus on the content and finishing the project. We can start to look toward the future of the museum in other ways, with expanding our education programs and bringing additional people on board for that.”
The expansion provides an additional 20,000 square-feet, doubling the museum’s exhibit space and offering 10 floors of educational exhibits to highlight Wisconsin’s rich maritime history.
“A two story brick building on the west waterfront is one thing. A two-story brick building with a 10 story observation tower and 10 floors of interactive STEAM and STEM-focused exhibits is something else,” Osgood told WTAQ News.
Osgood says the museum is already an attraction on the city’s western waterfront simply because of the tall lighthouse attached to it.
“When people see it, they may not know exactly what it is. But it makes them want to find out. So they come down to the neighborhood to see what it is, stop at the museum, and make us part of their plans, make the west waterfront or even make Sturgeon Bay a stop on their way to Door County. And they may not have done that before,” Osgood said. “Being able to to come through this now and have this going forward in the future for not just the museum, but for the city and the county. We think it’s just going to make us even more attractive for people to come and spend some time here.”
He points out that many may come for the museum to visit for a few hours, but they’ll also spend time shopping in town and stopping at local restaurants. That was made clear over the summer, as they had a two-plus hour wait for visitors to get to the 10th-floor observation deck.
“A two-hour wait to go to the observation tower meant that they had time to go across the street and get something to eat or go shopping and then come back to the museum and complete their visit,” Osgood said. “It really is part of an integrated neighborhood feel all of a sudden, and we really see that taking off in the future.”
The entire lighthouse project is costing about $9.2 million. It’s expected to open in May.
You can learn more about the museum on Destination Sturgeon Bay’s website or the museum’s website.
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