Michigan Travel · Muskegon
USS Silversides comes home to Muskegon Saturday morning: when to watch, where to park and when you can go aboard
MUSKEGON — The USS Silversides is coming home for Halloween.
The World War II submarine was scheduled to leave Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, and is expected to arrive in Muskegon between 8 a.m. and noon Saturday, Oct. 31, depending on conditions on Lake Michigan, FOX 17 and WZZM reported.
Museum staff said they would have a better arrival estimate once the tow is underway.
That settles the question left open earlier this week, when the museum could only say the tow would happen sometime between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, depending on weather and final tests.
The sub will first pass the museum, head into Muskegon Lake and turn around before it is brought back to its berth, WZZM reported. The museum’s parking lot will be closed to the public on arrival day. Public parking will be available nearby and along the beach, according to WZZM.
The museum itself will be free to the public on arrival day. The submarine will be moored over the weekend but will not open for tours until Saturday, Nov. 7. The museum store is selling dry-dock challenge coins, T-shirts and prints.
The Silversides left Muskegon in July for its first full dry-dock preservation in more than 50 years, and the museum stayed open while the boat was away. The $3.5 million project called for cleaning invasive zebra and quagga mussels off the hull, a detailed structural inspection, steel repairs and new protective coatings meant to last 25 to 30 years, FOX 17 reported.
The work drew a $750,000 federal Save America’s Treasures grant through the National Park Service, plus about $2.6 million from private and corporate donors. The museum said Friday morning it is still about $215,000 short of its fundraising goal.
The Gato-class submarine, more than 300 feet long and about 1,500 tons, patrolled the Pacific in World War II and sank more than 20 Japanese ships. It has been a Muskegon landmark since 1987.
Sources:
FOX 17 West Michigan, “‘She’s coming home’: USS Silversides submarine returning to Muskegon after restoration,” Oct. 30, 2026 (departure and arrival windows, project cost and scope, grant, donations, fundraising gap, size, 1987), https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/lakeshore/muskegon/shes-coming-home-uss-silversides-submarine-returning-to-muskegon-after-restoration
WZZM 13, “See the legendary USS Silversides pull into Muskegon Saturday after major overhaul,” Oct. 30, 2026 (route into Muskegon Lake, parking, free museum day, Nov. 7 reopening, store, wartime record), https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/see-the-legendary-uss-silversides-pull-into-muskegon-saturday-after-major-overhaul/69-ae1dc4f9-ac1f-4641-98ed-80324047166e
Photo: Wes O’Donnell, “USS Silversides Museum.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Silversides_Museum.jpg
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