Virtual Exhibit: Picnics & Parades
100 Years of the Coast Guard Festival
May 18 – September 22, 2024
How did the Coast Guard Festival grow from a small picnic to the massive spectacle we know today? Find out by exploring the past 100 years of the Coast Guard Festival history in this virtual version of the 2024 exhibit.
Exhibit Scroll-Through
If you prefer to scroll through each item instead of doing the 3D walkthrough, you may do so below!
Introduction
The Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival is a nationally renowned event attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The fact that the Coast Guard has a festival of this size and importance is unsurprising. The Coast Guard is, after all, a vital part of the United States military that saves lives at sea and enforces the law in U.S. waters. But, how did the most popular Coast Guard Festival come to be in Grand Haven, Michigan? Why is this festival here and not at a major Atlantic or Pacific port, or in New London, Connecticut, the home of the Coast Guard Academy?
1991I.116.11 - The USCGC Escanaba III at the Coast Guard Festival.
This exhibition explores the question of how and why Grand Haven became the host city for the largest Coast Guard Festival in the country. The answer lies in the unique bond between the United States Coast Guard and Grand Haven’s community.
This connection started with the establishment of the Life Saving Service’s Station Grand Haven in 1876 and was strengthened through the bond between the USCGC Escanaba and the community. With each passing year, the Festival celebrated and cemented this bond, allowing the event to grow from a modest picnic for Coast Guard personnel and their families to the massive festival it is today.
1995.37.20 - A float in the 1952 Coast Guard Festival Parade.
1995.47.40 Coast Guard Picnic Attendees 1929
Early Years
The Coast Guard Festival we know today had modest origins: it started as a picnic for Coast Guard personnel and their families to celebrate the Coast Guard’s anniversary. The first Coast Guard picnic in Grand Haven was planned for August 4, 1924 - but was unfortunately rained out! The picnics started as one day affairs where Coast Guardsmen and their families enjoyed refreshments.
In 1925, the Coast Guardsmen started friendly athletic competitions among different stations’ servicemembers, showing the skills they used in their work such as capsize drills, rescue demonstrations, and swimming races. The picnics rotated among the stations on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan for the first twelve years before settling permanently in Grand Haven in 1937.
Photo of the Coast Guard Picnic at Sleeping Bear Point Station on August 4, 1933. Image courtesy of the Loutit District Library. (2012.01.837).
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1924 - Grand Haven (planned but canceled due to rain).
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1925 - White Lake.
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1926 - Pentwater.
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1927 - Muskegon.
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1928 - Ludington.
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1929 - Grand Haven.
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1930 - Grand Haven/Ferrysburg.
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1931 - Manistee.
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1932 - South Haven.
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1933 - Sleeping Bear Point.
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1934 - Ludington.
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1935 - Grand Haven.
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1936 - Pentwater.
Extended Summer Hours
(Memorial Day to Labor Day)
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
closed
10-8
10-8
10-8
10-8
12-8
12-5
Come on in...
Admission is free!
Regular Hours
(Labor Day to Memorial Day)
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
closed
10-5
10-5
10-5
10-5
12-5
12-5
3D Virtual Walkthrough
Click the walkthrough image below for a virtual 3D walkthrough of the space, where you can "walk" around, click on things to read more or look closer, and feel like you're physically at the exhibit!