Sturgeon Bay: Built on Propellers

Sturgeon Bay sits at the heart of Door County, and for more than a century its identity was shaped by the ships that passed through its canal. The marine propeller on display here represents the city's long transition from the age of sail to the age of steam, a shift that made Sturgeon Bay one of the great freshwater shipbuilding centers in the United States.

The city's shipyards built and repaired vessels ranging from Great Lakes freighters to Great Lakes car ferries, the ships that carried automobiles and passengers across Lake Michigan. At its peak, the yards employed hundreds of local workers and launched dozens of hulls per decade. The propellers you see here were recovered from ships that served those waters, each one a reminder that the quiet bay you see today once rang with the sound of steel being shaped into something that could push a ten-thousand-ton ship through open water.