USS Silversides Submarine Museum

Submarine museums are already special in their own right, but what sets the USS Silversides Museum apart is the chance to spend the night aboard, sleeping in the same narrow bunks that WWII sailors once did.

The museum has hosted many exhibits over the years, ranging from Navy Divers featuring Carl Brashear, made famous in the movie Men of Honor, to its 2025 show Lake Michigan's Call to Duty in WWII. Inside, visitors can peer through working periscopes, explore a ship's control station featuring control yokes still used on modern submarines, and even play a giant version of Battleship.

Outside the museum is the USS Silversides herself, a wartime veteran credited with sinking 23 enemy ships over her years of service. Her myriad awards and war reports breathe life into history in a way that no book can. You can explore her hull, sit in the crew's mess, and peer into torpedo tubes as you walk the same spaces as WWII sailors. For the especially curious, behind-the-scenes tours are available for purchase, limited to an intimate six persons per tour.

Like most museums, there's a gift shop, but alongside the usual mugs and shot glasses, you'll find challenge coins, an illustrated record of the USS Silverside's war patrols, and even a classic Navy "Dixie Cup" hat!