Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary
National Marine Sanctuary · Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Roughly 962 square miles of Lake Michigan off the Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Kewaunee shore, designated a National Marine Sanctuary by NOAA in 2021 — the fifteenth in the system and one of only two in the Great Lakes. It protects 36 known shipwrecks and around 59 more thought to be down there, from 1830s schooners to steamers lost in the 1930s. Lake Michigan is cold and fresh, so the wrecks do not rot the way saltwater wrecks do: masts still stand, deck fittings are in place, and several sit shallow enough to see from a kayak.
Lake Michigan, offshore of Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Kewaunee counties, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 53081, United States
Open water, accessible year-round and free, with no permit and no fee. Diving, snorkelling and paddling are practically limited to roughly June through September; charters run in that window and cancel for weather. Shore-based interpretive sites along the coast are open year-round. Anchoring or grappling into the wrecks is prohibited — use the provided moorings.
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