Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center to reopen Thursday
News Photo by Julie Riddle Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, on Wednesday gazes at the center’s Science on a Sphere exhibit, revamped with laser projectors.
News Photo by Julie Riddle At the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena on Wednesday, Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager, talks about displays in the center’s central hall.
News Photo by Julie Riddle Overcome by excitement – or, perhaps, feeling silly – Visitor Experience Manager Andrew Augustyn and Jeff Gray, superintendent for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, embrace in front of a display at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena on Wednesday.
News Photo by Julie Riddle Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, on Wednesday explains an exhibit meant to mimic an underwater experience.
News Photo by Julie Riddle Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, on Wednesday gazes at the center’s Science on a Sphere exhibit, revamped with laser projectors.
News Photo by Julie Riddle At the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena on Wednesday, Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager, talks about displays in the center’s central hall.
News Photo by Julie Riddle Overcome by excitement – or, perhaps, feeling silly – Visitor Experience Manager Andrew Augustyn and Jeff Gray, superintendent for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, embrace in front of a display at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena on Wednesday.
News Photo by Julie Riddle Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, on Wednesday explains an exhibit meant to mimic an underwater experience.
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ALPENA -- Of the up to 100,000 people who visit the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center each year, the people who missed it most during a two-year closure might be the folks who work there, employees say.
Shuttered, like many other businesses, by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the visitor center for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary will reopen at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
As a popular tourist draw that funnels visitors to other local attractions, the center's open doors will mean more business and busyness downtown and throughout the region, said Jeff Gray, superintendent for the sanctuary.
But locals will be equally excited to get back to the visitor center beloved by many as an intriguing - and free - place to visit, he said.
Staff have taken advantage of the closure to tweak some public areas and refresh an exhibit or two, but the building has seemed lonely without its usual hustle and bustle of visitors, said Andrew Augustyn, visitor experience manager at the center.
"The first time we see kids out here running and laughing, it'll be awesome," Gray said.
Visitors may be most excited to get back to the Western Hope, a walk-through exhibit modeled after an actual 1800s schooner, complete with slanted floors that make visitors feel like they're at sea.
Even more exciting to Augustyn are the new laser projectors that light up the Science on a Sphere exhibit, used to display dynamic presentations of the Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land.
The visitor center expanded its green rooftop, more than doubling the rentable space and adding large swaths of plants intended to create healthier air and absorb unwanted water.
Other rentable spaces sport new countertops and other updates to make the building more visitor-friendly, Augustyn said.
For now, the staff wants to concentrate on getting exhibits back open to the public. Program updates may come during the summer, Gray said.
Right after last week's announcement of the reopening date, the phone started ringing with visit requests from school groups and questions about the center, Gray said.
"I just rang up a sale on the gift shop cash register," said David Usher, visitor experience specialist, on Wednesday. "I hadn't touched it in two years."
Gray can't go anywhere without someone asking him when the visitor center will reopen, he said.
Now, he has an answer for them.
The community might be excited for opening day, but the staff are even more excited, Augustyn said. He's not sure what Thursday will bring when the doors swing open for the first time.
"There might be a line," Augustyn said.
Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.