The next presentation of the Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series will be held on Thursday, February 6, and will feature Dr. Don Mikulic taking about “The Ledge, the Lake, and the Limestone.”
The Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series programs are held the first Thursday of each month, October through May, beginning at 7pm. The Maritime Speaker Series is held in the Reddin Bridge Room at the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, 120 North Madison Avenue. Admission is free of charge with a suggested non-perishable food donation.
Silurian dolomitic strata outcropping along the bluffs of the Niagara Escarpment, which borders some of the Great Lakes shoreline, have long been an important source of stone. Exposed extensively along parts of Lake Michigan in northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and on Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula in Lake Huron, these rocks were prized by early settlers as an excellent source of building materials. Because population density in these areas was and still is low, local demand for the stone has been minimal. The ease and low cost with which these rocks could be quarried, placed on boats, and shipped to more distant markets, however, led to the development of a successful stone industry in the region.
Dr. Don Mikulic is a Curator at the Weis Earth Science Museum in Menasha and a retired Senior Paleontologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His Ph.D. in Geology is from Oregon State University. His lifelong geological research focuses on Wisconsin Silurian and Devonian geology and paleontology.
The Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series offers an assortment of monthly programs dealing with everything from historical topics to current issues affecting the Great Lakes and the economy that relies on them. Additional support for the Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series is provided by Foremost Resorts, The Lodge at Leathem Smith, Westwood Shores and the Sister Bay Bowl.
The remaining schedule of presenters for the 2019-2020 Door County Medical Center Maritime Speaker Series include Museum volunteers and staff, historians, authors, and marine engineers:
- March 5 – Curator Rhys Kuzdas: “Built for Battle: Sturgeon Bay and World War II”
- April 2 – Dan Heibler: “Myths and Mysteries: Legends and Lore of our Great Lakes”
- May 7 – Wes Oleszewski: “World War II & The Great Lakes”