The 4th annual Thunder Bay Maritime Festival, a free family event, took place on the nation’s birthday and featured tours of the three-masted 19th century Great Lakes schooner, Denis Sullivan, as well as a line-up of entertainment, games, displays and boat tours. The Festival is co-hosted by the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and the City of Alpena.

This outreach event engages people of all ages in a wide range of maritime history on the Great Lakes - from tales of life on the sailing ships of the 19th and 20th centuries to recent shipwreck discoveries by scientists aboard modern research vessels. The Festival, scheduled during peak tourist season, fosters the stewardship necessary for the cultural and environmental preservation of the Great Lakes.

Audiences were delighted this year by Wisconsin folksinger and songsmith David HB Drake, as well as these festival favorites: the award-winning folk singing group Song of the Lakes, the popular acappella group The Overtones, and well-known Great Lakes storyteller Genot Picor.

Throughout the day, members of public could view a unique recreation of a portion of the wooden passenger and package freighter carrier, Pewabic, as well as the sanctuary film, Tragedies in the Mist. And, as in years past, popular maritime artists and authors were on hand to discuss their work.

The Thunder Bay Maritime Festival is key to a region-wide campaign to educate the public about the maritime history of the Great Lakes. Despite the creation of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, the public has much to learn about the remarkable collection of shipwrecks and underwater relics that inspired the designation of Thunder Bay as a national marine sanctuary. See photos of the 2003 Thunder Bay Maritime Festival!

Thunder Bay is a 448-square mile sanctuary and underwater preserve that protects an estimated 116 historically significant shipwrecks ranging from nineteenth century wooden side-wheelers to twentieth century steel-hulled steamers.

The mission of the Thunder Bay, as with all the national marine sanctuaries, is to undertake innovative efforts to inspire people to preserve, protect, and promote the unique environmental and/or historical and cultural treasures that are found in our nation’s marine sanctuaries.

The sanctuary is helped in its mission by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, which supports the outreach and education efforts of the National Marine Sanctuary System, part of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
You can help further the mission of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve and all our national marine sanctuaries by supporting the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation! >> I want to help!