NEWS

Book talk, Santa on the tug, Speaker Series at DCMM

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The Door County Maritime Museum is in for a busy week with a look at a maritime book, a visit from a popular December guest, and the start of its popular Maritime Speaker Series.

A diver looks over the wreck of the steamship Niagara, which burned and sank with 150 people aboard in Lake Michigan in 1856. Former Door County Maritime Museum executive director Bob Desh will give a program on the shipwreck for the Maritime Speaker Series at the museum Dec. 8.

Great Lakes/Great Books

In partnership with Write On, Door County, the museum resumes its Great Lakes/Great Books series with a discussion of the nonfiction book "The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes" by Jerry Dennis.

The series is a book club that meets the first Thursday of the month from November through May and features books with a Great Lakes focus. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be discussed with a facilitator from Write On.

"The Windward Shore" is the result of Dennis spending a winter living on the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, chronicling the people he met, the little-seen places on the lakes, the relationships he observed between nature and man under harsh conditions, and more.

Living near Traverse City, Mich., with his wife, Dennis has had his essays and short fiction appear in more than 100 publications, including The New York Times and Smithsonian, Audubon, Orion, American Way, Gray’s Sporting Journal, and Michigan Quarterly Review magazines. His books have won many awards and been translated into several languages. In 1999 the Michigan Library Association named Dennis the Michigan Author of the Year.

Future books scheduled to be discussed in the series are "Ashes Under Water: The SS Eastland and the Shipwreck that Shook America" by Michael McCarthy, January; "The Bone House" by Brian Freeman, February; "Ship Captain’s Daughter: Growing up on the Great Lakes" by Ann Michler Lewis, March; "Water Music: The Great Lakes State Poetry Anthology" by the Poetry Society of Michigan, April; and "The Death and Life of the Great Lakes" by Dan Egan, May.

The Great Lakes/Great Books discussion of "The Windward Shore" is at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 1 at the museum.

A tug for Santa

One of the popular, traditional family events at DCMM is the annual appearance by Santa Claus on the tug John Purves, docked outside the museum, which takes place this year from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 3. The Man in Red will visit with children and hear their Christmas wishes. Because of the size of the tug, only two adults can accompany each child on board. An adult museum admission that day includes the Santa visit.

Besides Santa’s visit on Dec. 3, the museum will be one of several stops on the DOOR CANcer Holiday Home Tour. This year the tour includes several homes and a guest house trimmed for the holidays, along with free admission to the museum, which itself is decked out with 28 decorated artificial trees for the season with its Merry-Time Festival of Trees; the trees bear prizes and certificates and are available via raffle. Tickets for the home tour are $30 and available at the museum.

Desh talks shipwreck for Speaker Series

The museum’s Maritime Speaker Series opens at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 with a “A Doll, a Wrench, and a Thimble — Remembering the loss of the ‘Palace Steamer’ Niagara" presented by former DCMM executive director Bob Desh.

Bob Desh

The talk will help conclude the shipwreck artifact exhibit that had been showing in the upper lobby, and Desh will touch on some of the poignant reminders from the Niagara’s wreck on display.

Desh will detail the tragic event that took place in September 1856 when the Niagara burned during a voyage from Sheboygan to Port Washington and a total of 150 souls were lost. He will also discuss the significant role this class of passenger vessel played in the European emigration westward, including to Door County.

Also scheduled for the series are programs with Steve Selvick on the history of Selvick Tugs, Jan. 5; and Mike Peters on his time crewing the tall ship Baltimore, March 2. The February speaker program will be announced later.

All Maritime Speaker Series programs are free to attend, although a nonperishable food donation is requested.

The Door County Maritime Museum is at 120 N. Madison Ave., Sturgeon Bay; it also operates seasonal museums in Gills Rock and at the Cana Island Lighthouse. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, closed holidays. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 ages 5-17, free for DCMM members. For more information, call 920-743-5958 or visit www.dcmm.org.