Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum has become one of Michigan’s most popular destinations in the cultural tourism industry, attracting over 100,000 visitors each season. The museum is open every day May 1 to October 31, from 9AM to 5PM. Museum patrons learn about the perils of maritime transport on the Great Lakes at the Whitefish Point Light Station, an Historic Site on the National Register of Historic Places. See the Whitefish Point Light Tower, in continuous operation since 1861, the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior.

Admission prices

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A tour of the Shipwreck Museum includes:

Self-guided tour of the Shipwreck Museum Building & Exhibits
Self-guided tour of 1861 USLHS Lightkeeper’s Quarters & Exhibits
Self-guided tour of 1923 Surfboat House & Exhibits
1923 USCG Motor Lifeboat House with video theater

An unmanned aircraft system (UAS), sometimes called a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard.

WHITEFISH POINT IS A NO DRONE ZONE

For the safety and security of our patrons and property, Whitefish Point is a No Drone Zone. This includes US Fish & Wildlife Service Property/Seney National Wildlife Refuge (Whitefish Point Unit), Whitefish Point Bird Observatory/Michigan Audobon Society property is also protected as a No Drone Zone. Take all the pictures and videos you want, but be sure to leave your drone at home or in your vehicle! Thank you for respecting our No Drone Zone policy.

Shipwreck Museum Gallery – Explore the Haunting World of Shipwrecks

Lake Superior. Deceivingly beautiful, yet the big lake’s unrelenting fury has earned her the reputation of being the most treacherous of the Great Lakes. Throughout the museum gallery visitors see dramatic shipwreck legends come to life. Artifacts and exhibits tell stories of sailors and ships who braved the waters of Superior and those who were lost to her menacing waves. The bell of the famous Edmund Fitzgerald is displayed in the museum as a memorial to her lost crew. Whitefish Point marks the critical turning point for all ships entering or leaving the lake. The waters that extend west from Whitefish Point along the 80-mile stretch of rugged shoreline have earned the ominous title, “Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast.”

Lightkeepers Quarters – 1861

Take a trip back in time on a tour of the fully restored 1861 Lightkeepers Quarters. You’ll hear first-hand accounts of keepers and their families who manned this side-by-side duplex building while tending the light. The Lightkeepers Quarters features period furnishings, descriptive panels, extensive exhibits and artifacts from the days of the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Life Saving Service.

Our experienced tour guides will direct you as you climb the stairs to the second floor, where you may enter the unique covered passageway to the base of the Light Tower’s stairway – that lightkeepers have climbed time after time for nearly 150 years. As the Whitefish Point Light Tower is still a fully operating U.S. Coast Guard Aid to Navigation. Visitors are allowed to stand in the tower base and look upwards at the wrought iron spiral staircase.

1923 Surfboat House

The U.S. Coast Guard kept a Lifeboat Rescue Station at Whitefish Point from 1923 to 1951, assisting countless mariners in distress and rescuing the entire crew of the sinking Zillah in 1926. This station was equipped with two Surfboat Houses, one on the Whitefish Bay side of the Point for a motorized launch, and the second on the Lake Superior side of the Point, for a hand-pulled, non-motorized boat that could be quickly launched from the beach into a raging surf by skilled surfmen.

The Shipwreck Museum has preserved and restored this second Surfboat House, included with your tour of the museum campus. Exhibits tell the story of the courageous men and women of the United States Life-Saving Service, which came to Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast in 1876. The loss of lives here was so appalling that the USLSS established no less than four stations along this dangerous shoreline, the most concentrated number of stations anywhere on the Great Lakes.

Exhibits feature a full-size replica, handmade, 26-foot Beebe-McClellan surfboat, fully equipped for launch; and a mannequin of one of Whitefish Point’s famous surfmen, whose motto was:

“You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.”

Barrier-Free Access Boardwalk to Lake Superior Shoreline

Whitefish Point is also a special area for natural habitat. Its sand dunes and beach grasses are environmentally sensitive, so the Shipwreck Museum constructed a barrier-free access boardwalk in 1998 to allow public access for everyone including those visitors with limited mobility. The boardwalk keeps visitor traffic away from the sand dunes. There are stairs at the lake end of the boardwalk to allow those who wish to walk on the beach. Constructed with financial assistance from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, one gets an excellent view of Lake Superior and passing vessel traffic, and on a clear day, a view of the Laurentian Mountains near Coppermine Point, Ontario.

The 1861 Whitefish Point Light Tower

An historic story in itself, this “iron-pile” lighthouse was constructed to replace Whitefish Point’s original stone tower, which existed from 1849 until 1860 – the severe winds experienced here proved too much for its basic masonry construction.

The U.S. Lighthouse Service successfully passed a bill through Congress in 1860 that allowed for the construction of many new lighthouses, including three on Lake Superior to light the way for the copper and iron ore trade. Lighthouses identical to Whitefish Point were built at Manitou Island and at DeTour, Michigan.

An Ohio contractor followed the exact specifications of the Lighthouse Board, commencing his work on the light during President Lincoln’s administration in 1861. This lighthouse is strictly built of iron and copper – steel was too new to be trusted. The “piles” that have held it firmly against hurricane-force winds for so very long are not hollow pipes – they are heavy, steel, cylinders, designed to distribute forces against the tower evenly to its foundation. The designers of the tower would be astonished to know how long it has continued to function in its original purpose.

Shipwreck Coast Museum Store

You can visit our Museum Store Online 365 days a year!

Visitors to Whitefish Point are invited to see the new Museum Store building, located in the new construction zone of the museum campus. This building houses restrooms, meeting areas, and staff offices in addition to a large sales area offering Shipwreck Society signature clothing, books, video/DVD, souvenirs, original works of art and prints, models and games, all related to a maritime Great Lakes theme.

There is a year-round branch of the store at the Society’s U.S. Weather Bureau Building in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.