Last updated: October 15, 2024
Place
Maritime Museum
NPS credit
Quick Facts
Amenities
7 listed
Beach/Water Access, Entrance Passes for Sale, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Picnic Table, Restroom, Trash/Litter Receptacles
Hours
Closed
This museum is open seasonally, typically Memorial Day through Labor Day. 2025 hours will be updated in the spring of 2025.
Pets are not permitted on the Maritime Museum grounds.
About the Maritime Museum
The National Lakeshore's Maritime Museum is housed in the Sleeping Bear Point U.S. Life-Saving Service Station which helped protect sailors and passengers moving through the Manitou Passage on Lake Michigan.
Visit the Maritime Museum to learn about the history of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, U.S. Coast Guard, and Great Lakes shipping. Walk through the boathouse next to the museum and see the life-saving equipment used during the early 1900's.
The museum's collection includes artifacts from ships and boats, books, plans, photographs, and navigation instruments.
Exhibits illustrate the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Great Lakes shipping history. A room on the second floor is outfitted as a Steamer Wheelhouse with a panoramic view of the Manitou Passage shipping channel.
A wayside entitled, "Coast Guard Station 1902 to 1942," tells about moving the station to its present place.
The Sleeping Bear Point Life-Saving Station
By the turn-of-the-century, there were about sixty life-saving stations along the Great Lakes. This included one at Point Betsie, about 19 miles southwest of Sleeping Bear Point, and one on North Manitou Island about 15 miles north of Sleeping Bear Point.
The Manitou Passage, the channel between the Manitou Islands and the mainland, was a heavily-used shipping lane. Ships traveling between Chicago and the Straits of Mackinac favored the Manitou Passage over the open waters of Lake Michigan because of the shorter distance and access to the harbor-of-refuge on South Manitou Island. However, the waters of the Manitou Passage could be treacherous and shipwrecks occurred frequently. In 1901, two identical life-saving stations were constructed to guard the Manitou Passage, one on South Manitou Island and one at Sleeping Bear Point.
Over the years, technological developments such as radios, radar and helicopters reduced the need for many life-saving stations. The Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station closed during World War II and stood idle until 1971 when it served briefly as the visitor center for the newly-established Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. For several summers rangers led tours in the empty station, interpreting the U.S. Life-Saving Service and Great Lakes maritime history. Then in 1982 and 1983 the site underwent historic restoration. The grounds and the buildings were restored to their 1931 appearance, except for the interior of the boathouse and the crew's bedroom which were restored to the way they looked in the early 1900s, during the first few years of the station's existence. In the spring of 1984 installation of exhibits and furnishings was completed and the former Coast Guard station re-opened as a maritime museum. The official dedication took place with a gala ceremony on Coast Guard Day, August 4, 1984.
The life-saving stations played an important role in local communities, assisting in many ways beyond their official functions. The surfmen became folk heroes, greatly respected for their courage and skill. Neighbors often came by to watch their drills, especially the boating practice. This involved not only rowing in the surf, but also intentionally capsizing the boat and then righting it. The constant practice paid off in a crisis. From the time of its establishment in 1871 until it became part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, the U.S. Life-Saving Service rescued over 178,000 people. Its success rate was an astounding 99%.
U.S. Life-Saving Service
Congress established the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) in 1871 in an effort to reduce the number of lives lost on the oceans and the Great Lakes due to shipwrecks. The surfmen of the USLSS became known as "storm warriors" and "storm fighters." Their unofficial motto was, "you have to go out, but you don't have to come back." USLSS crews braved perilous conditions to save shipwreck victims from certain doom.
The narrow Manitou Passage, which runs between the islands and the mainland, is one of the most dangerous on the Great Lakes. Ships have to make several turns here because of the shoals surrounding the islands. At night, surfmen patrolled the beaches, looking and listening for any signs of a ship in distress.
The crew were also responsible for maintaining the station; this included keeping it clean. Every morning they cleaned the lamps and lanterns and trimmed and filled them. They swept the hallways; filled wood boxes; swept sidewalks; cleaned cuspidors and ash trays; dusted the stairway; and made their beds neat and smooth. On Saturdays, or scrub day, all station floors were scrubbed, windows washed, and brass polished.
Surfmen also kept the buildings and equipment gleaming. Maintenance of buildings usually meant repainting the buildings and cutting and splitting wood (enough wood for the two kitchen ranges and two wood burners in the station). But when needed, expanded to renovation tasks like putting on new roofs, laying new flooring, building new outhouses, and even laying new sod (and watering that sod).
The main duty of the Service was the protection of life and property on the water. But local citizens often looked to the crew when they needed help. An annual report from 1895 lists some of these "Miscellaneous Services": surfmen rigging the rope on the flagstaff of the county building, extinguishing 21 fires in homes or buildings, catching a runaway horse, repairing a wagon owned by two ladies who were kept out of the rain at the station while the surfmen worked on their buggy, finding a child lost in the woods, helping sick people get home. And once, helping a farmer get his horse out of a well.
Navigating the nation's coastal waters, whether the oceans or the Great Lakes, has always been a risky business. Courageous volunteers performed most of the early rescues, but often their efforts were hampered by inadequate training and poor equipment. As the nation grew in the post-civil War era, shipping also increased. On the Great Lakes, both sailing vessels and steamers were numerous, carrying cargoes of lumber, grain, iron ore and other products.
During the severe winter of 1870-71, 214 people lost their lives in shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Shipwrecks were common along the Atlantic Coast. The need for professional rescue crews was evident, and in 1871 Congress appropriated money for this purpose. The U.S. Life-Saving Service was the government agency charged with carrying out rescues from shore.
Each station had a keeper, often called "Captain," who had overall responsibility for the station. He was chosen for his skill as a boatman coupled with his ability to read and write. The keeper supervised a crew of six to eight surfmen hired from the local community. The main qualification for a surfman was the ability to row an open boat in a storm. The surfmen were ranked by skill, the best man being #1, while the least experienced would be #6, #7 or #8, depending on the size of the crew. The men worked their way up through the ranks. On the Great Lakes, the surfmen worked during the shipping season from April to mid-December, while the keeper worked year-round.
Living in the Station House
Typical U. S. Life-Saving Service Stations were rectangular framed houses, split in two by a hallway in the middle. One side housed the crew of surfmen: kitchen, dining room, and lounging area, and above that half of the house, the crew's sleeping room. The other half of the house was the keeper's quarters: kitchen, dining area, and a living room, and two second bedrooms. The keeper and his wife slept in one of the bedrooms and the children in the other room.
The crew spent most of their time in the on the first floor as the sleeping quarters upstairs wasn't heated. They read, played cards, listened to music, cooked meals, and told stories.
Upstairs in the sleeping quarters, each surfman had an iron bed and a closet with a number over the door to identify who it belonged to. The closet shelves held spare sheets and blankets, a swimming suit, and each man's regulation clothing. The men also kept a case of wooden matches in small wooden boxes, a jack knife, and towels, all folded neatly. Their dress coat which hung on the door. Each man also had a book of regulations.
There was no washstand upstairs. Washing took place either in the kitchen or out in the laundry room. The station had a shallow water well. A pump by kitchen was the only inside plumbing. They had no electricity, only oil or gas lights. One keeper bought a little metal bathtub and installed it so it drained, but they still had to fill the tub with bucketsful of water heated on the wood stove.
Many of the surfmen had their own, small houses nearby. This allowed them to be with their families. The surfmen had one day off every 8 days, otherwise they were on duty 24 hours a day. Regulations required the men to sleep at the station except for their day off. But some keepers were more lenient allowing men to stay in their cottages near the station, where they could be called quickly to come in an emergency and let people spend a little more time at home.