For anyone who geeks out over the space race era of the Cold War and and stories of things from outer space crashing into earth, here is an odd monument located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. If you are on your way to Door County, Wisconsin, the town is worth a stop for lunch and to stretch the legs.
On September 5, 1962, at 4:30 a.m., a 20 x 8 cm piece of the Soviet Sputnik IV (but the Russians referred to it was the Korabi-Sputnik I) satellite crashed into the middle of 8th Street (North Route 10), near the intersection of Park Street. It struck the street in the centerline and today a brass circle in the pavement marks the exact location where a small piece of the Cold War space race history landed this out of the way Midwestern town a footnote in that history.
The town added a granite monument in the sidewalk along the street where it hit to mark the event, which was a big deal when it happened. It is located in front of the Rahr-West Art Museum, which has a great web page explaining the details of the event.
A satellite malfunction cause it to drop out of orbit and crash over the United States. Most of it was burned up in atmosphere during re-entry. In addition to the large chuck of Sputnik IV that crashed into the street, small charred fragments were also found on a nearby church roof. No other fragments were ever found, but some may still be lurking in area farm fields or Lake Michigan of the area.
Two Manitowoc patrolmen, Marvin Bauch and Ronald Rusboldt, discovered the fragment and turned it over to authorities. Officials at NASA and the Smithsonian Institute identified threads arranged in the metric system, and the detection of two minerals created by the heat and friction of re-entry: wustite and akaganeite, then Rohr-West museum page says.
The fragment was examined by U.S. space experts before being turned over to the Soviets.
I found this marker by accident while looking through photos of the area to find cool places to bring the kids on our trip up to Door County. I was totally geed out and wanted to make this a stop to get photos. But, I found the children and wife were not impressed and stayed in the car while I grabbed a few pictures.
However, they were much more interested in the small Manitowoc Lincoln Park Zoo about a mile north of the Sputnik marker. The zoo included close up visits with mountain lions, eagles, other wildlife and a nature center. Although small, we managed to spend over an hour there.
They also liked taking a walk along the Manitowoc breakwater and light house near the north side of the downtown on Lake Michigan.
The https://www.wisconsinmaritime.orgWisconsin Maritime Museum in the downtown has a great collection of artifacts from the history of the Great Lakes shipping industry. Its crown jewel exhibit is the USS Cobia World War II submarine, which people can take tours of.
There are many restaurants in town. After reading through menus online we decided on the Courthouse Pub, 1001 South 8th St., across the street from the county court house building. It turned out to be an excellent choice. They has great food and drinks. It is also a micro brewery, so we along got beer beer flights to sample what they made. We linked several of the brews and you can get a growler of the beers you like to take home.
