The Door County Maritime Museum’s Gills Rock facility opens Friday for the Memorial Day weekend under the guidance of new Site Manager Kirsten Linder. The museum traces the area’s commercial fishing industry and features a shipwreck and a scuba diving exhibit including artifacts brought up from the bottom of Lake Michigan. It boasts the wooden fishing tug Hope, built in 1930 and a replica net shed complete with fishing boxes, net reel and other traditional fishing supplies. Other attractions include the newly restored Kahlenberg engine and the Plum Island Fresnel lens. Born and raised in Tennessee, Linder joined the museum staff in the spring. Educated in California, she traveled to France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg after college and before moving to Maine. Her love for small towns and communities brought her to Door County where she married husband Derrick, not far from the museum in Gills Rock. The northern Door County Maritime Museum will open for the season on June 3rd and remain open through October 15th.
