Ghost Ships Festival brings together experts and the public from accross the Great lakes for two days of exciting presentations about shipwrecks, nautical archaeology and maritime history. Admission to the Friday program is FREE, courtesy of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast national Marine Sanctuary.
Visit numerous vendors booths, try piloting WUAA's ROVs in the pool, visit our book signing booth with multiple well-known Great Lakes authors, hear live music and enjoy a truly maritime festival atmosphere!
See the Festival Brouchure or Website for Author Schedule at the Book Signing Table and Flash Presentation Schedule.
Tickets proces are: $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and youth under 18 are FREE!
Pre-registration is encouraged and can be purchases at the WUAA Store.
The Festival takes place at the Inn On Maritime Bay: 101 Maritime Dr., Manitowoc, WI. Reserve your rooms at the event rate: https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/groups/QT85M2
About the Ghost Ships Festival
The Ghost Ships Festival is two-day public, community event held annually in Wisconsin to promote research, education and public awareness of Great Lakes maritime history through the stories, remains and underwater archeology of Great Lakes shipwrecks.
Founded in Milwaukee in 1999, the Ghost Ships Festival brings together scuba divers, underwater archeologists, maritime historians, state and federal agencies, community tourism resources, local educators, academic archeology programs, diving charter businesses, dive equipment manufacturers and lakeshore communities to celebrate, study, promote and experience our area’s rich maritime history through the vehicle of ships that were lost on the Great Lakes.
The Ghost Ships Festival is hosted by the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, a 501c3 non-profit organization that trains interested members of the public to assist professional underwater archeologists in researching, surveying and documenting historic shipwreck sites.
The Ghost Ships Festival is co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archeology program and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
The Ghost Ships Festival includes presentations and workshops by avocational shipwreck hunters, professional and avocational underwater archeologists, documentary producers and maritime historians as well as performances and displays by regional musicians and artists.
Friday, March 6th
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
WELCOME RECEPTION
Join us across the parking lot at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for drinks and hors d'oeuvres
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
EXHIBIT HALL OPEN
Ghost Ships Festival kicks off with a Cash Bar and Vendor Booths open to the public
6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
BRENDON BAILLOD, RUSS GREEN, KEVIN CULLEN
Welcome Remarks and Kick off to Ghost Ships Festival
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
TOM FARNQUIST - FOUNDER OF THE GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK MUSEUM
Edmund Fitzgerald Remembered
8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
15 Minute Moderated Short Presentations on Great Lakes Maritime History and Archeology
Saturday, March 7th
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
EXHIBIT HALL OPEN
Day 2 kicks off with a Cash Bar and Vendor Booths open to the public
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION - KATIE LINDER, MICHELLE DAMIAN, SERENA STUETTGEN, BRENDON BAILLOD
Great Lakes Shipwreck Artifacts - Donation, Conservation and Curation
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
TAMARA THOMSEN - MARITIME ARCHEOLOGIST - WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2025: A Record Year for Wisconsin Shipwreck Discoveries
11:00 a.m. - Noon
RUSS GREEN - WISCONSIN SHIPWRECK COAST NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY
From Moorings to Mapping: A Year In Review at Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast NMS
Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch Break
Food trucks and vendors available on site.
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
MARK GAMMAGE - UNDERWATER EXPLORER AND HISTORIAN
The Propeller Comet: Lake Superior’s Treasure Ship
2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
CARRIE SOWDEN — MARITIME ARCHEOLOGIST, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE GREAT LAKES
The wrecks of the Hamilton & Scourge: Treasures for the War of 1812
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
BRENDON BAILLOD — PRESIDENT, WISCONSIN UNDERWATER ARCHEOLOGY ASSOCIATION
Discovery of Door County’s Ghost Ship: The F.J. King
4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
PAUL EHORN - PIONEER GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECK HUNTER
The Discovery of a Major New Lost Steamship
5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
RICHARD J. BOYD AWARD
WUAA Award for Contributions in Great Lakes Maritime Archeology
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
LEE MURDOCK—GREAT LAKES MUSICIAN & STORYTELLER
Lighthouse Legends and Great Lakes Lore
7:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
SOCIAL GATHERING AT HOTEL BAR
Post Event Social
Event Speakers
Tamara Thomsen
A Record Year for Wisconsin Shipwreck Discoveries
In 2024 an unprecedented seventeen new shipwrecks were reported to the Wisconsin State Historic Preservation Office. Through Wisconsin Historical Society’s partnership with WUAA the schooner Margaret A. Muir was surveyed and will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Learn about the other new discoveries including the Thomas H. Smith, Milwaukee Fireboat No. 17 and others through photos, video and brief histories, and find out what’s next for these resources.
Tamara Thomsen
Wisconsin Historical Society
Tamara Thomsen is a Maritime Archaeologist with Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Preservation and Archaeology program. Her research has resulted in the nomination of more than seventy submerged sites to the National Register of Historic Places. She has received awards from the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, and in 2014, she was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
Schedule
Russ Green
From Moorings to Mapping: A Year in Review at Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary
2024 marked the 3 rd full field season for WSCNMS. This presentation will share a recap of fieldwork and other projects at WSCNMS, highlighting the installation of 24 new shipwreck moorings and marker buoys. Also highlighted will be an upcoming project to utilize autonomous underwater vehicle technology to document sanctuary shipwrecks. The technology is similar to that used in then recent documentation of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance in Antarctica.
Russ Green is the superintendent of NOAA’s Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary. Russ has worked in Great Lakes conservation for 25 years, first as a maritime archaeologist for the state of Wisconsin and later as deputy superintendent at NOAA’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron. He’s contributed to dozens of maritime archeology projects along the east and west coasts, Bermuda, Micronesia, and Japan, and regularly leads fieldwork in the Great Lakes. He’ll share a recap of the sanctuary’s work this year, focusing on the placement of 24 new shipwreck moorings and marker buoys.
Schedule
Brendon Baillod & Bob Jaeck
Discovery & Documentation of the Tug John Evenson
Join us for a deep dive in the use of acoustical remote sensing (sidescan, sector scan and multi-beam sonar) in locating and documenting historic shipwreck, submerged cultural landscape and industrial archeology sites.
Brendon Baillod
Brendon has been researching, documenting and telling the stories of Great Lakes ships for nearly 40 years. He has appeared on the National Geographic Channel, History Channel, Discovery Channel and Travel Channel discussing Great Lakes maritime history. He is the author of Fathoms Deep but not Forgotten, a compendium of over 400 Wisconsin ships and shipwrecks. Brendon is the current president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association and has the largest private collection of antiquarian Great Lakes books, maps, photos and ephemera in existence. He is the creator of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Group on social media and sits on the Advisory Council for the new Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary.Bob Jaeck
Bob Jaeck has been diving Great Lakes shipwrecks for nearly 50 years and is an avid researcher and author. Bob is a current director of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association and has been led several fieldwork projects to identify and document historic shipwreck remains in Wisconsin waters. He has the most complete collection of original research materials concerning SE Wisconsin shipwrecks and has searched for and documented historic vessel remains in the Racine area since the 1970s. Bob and Brendon were two of the original founders of Milwaukee's Ghost Ships Festival and have been shipwreck hunting partners for nearly 30 years. Schedule
Lee Murdock
Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes. Taking snapshots from history, his songs summon the listener to take a front-row seat, to look through the eyes and into the hearts of individuals who have shaped our heritage on and around the Great Lakes. His concerts invoke a sense of place, but it is a universal place, and a timeless repertoire that celebrates the North American people, their triumphs and tragedies, work songs and pastimes.
Noted as a fluent instrumentalist on six and twelve string guitars, Murdock combines ragtime, Irish, blues and folk styles with this flair for storytelling in songs. His musical influences span fifteen generations, and combine original compositions with traditional music.
There is an amazing timelessness in this music. Great Lakes songs are made of hard work, hard living, ships that go down and ships that come in. The music is grounded in the work song tradition, from the rugged days of lumberjacks and wooden sailing schooners. Murdock comes alongside with ballads of contemporary commerce and revelry in the grand folk style. Lee’s fans have discovered a sweetwater treasure in his songs about the Great Lakes, finding drama and inspiration in the lives of sailors and fishermen, lighthouse keepers, ghosts, shipwrecks, outlaws and everyday heroes. For more about Lee and to purchase his music, visit: https://leemurdock.com/
ScheduleTickets
Ghost Ships Festival has a few ways to enter.
Tickets
Tickets Sold at the Door for $30
Booth Registration
For $200, each booth holder gets a single 8 ft. table with power and two tickets. The exhibit hall will be locked after hours. Setup will begin at noon on Friday and the exhibit hall will open at 5PM on Friday. It will close at 9:30PM on Friday. It will reopen at 7AM on Saturday and will remain open until 6PM on Saturday.
Contact Brenden Bailod after purchasing the table from the WUAA Store. There are a limited number of tables, so act fast.
Room Reservations
Book now because rooms are going fast.
Staying at the The Inn on Maritime Bay, Ascend Hotel Collection
Fri, Mar 6 - Sun, Mar 8, 2026 (2 nights)
https://www.choicehotels.com/reservations/
Sponsorship
If you would like to Sponsor the Ghost Ships Festival you can pick from the packages below.
Sponsors must provide artwork and text to me at Brenden Bailod before February 15th. Artwork should be .jpg format.
Quarter Plan
$50
- Ad in the program brochure
- Quarter Page
- Logo and blurb on the Sponsors page for the calendar year until the next Ghost Ships
Half Plan
$100
- Ad in the program brochure
- Half Page
- Logo and blurb on the Sponsors page for the calendar year until the next Ghost Ships
Full Plan
$200
- Ad in the program brochure
- Full Page
- Logo and blurb on the Sponsors page for the calendar year until the next Ghost Ships