The Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in downtown Alpena opened back up Thursday after being closed for over 40 days due to the government shut down.
It's home to 10,000 square feet of maritime exhibits and historical artifacts and serves as the welcome center for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Huron. The sanctuary is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as NOAA.
Stephanie Gandulla is resource protection coordinator for Thunder Bay. She said education programs for students across the northeast region will be starting back up in the coming weeks.
"When you first walk in there's a life size wooden schooner that you can crawl a board," Gandulla said. "And then all sorts of maritime history shipwreck stories to learn about. You can pilot an underwater robot."
Some research activity at Thunder Bay was put on hold due to the shut down. But Gandulla said the winter months are when they do the bulk of their data crunching and plan summer field work trips on Lake Huron.
Gandulla added that her team is back at preparing for the Thunder Bay International Film Festival. It's still scheduled to take place at the end of January.
"This will be the 14th one coming up. And it's five days of ocean and Great Lakes films," Gandulla said. We've been planning a really exciting event this year. We've got film makers coming from all over, particularly, of course, the Great Lakes region."
Around 100,000 people visit the center every year.
