Door County gets a 30th shipwreck named to the National Register of Historic Places

BAILEYS HARBOR - The last of four shipwrecks off Door County that were named to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places in 2023 has now joined the other three on the national historic register as well.

The wreck of the Peoria, a mostly intact 19th-century lumber schooner in the bay off Baileys Harbor, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, the Wisconsin Historical Society announced April 26. The Peoria joined the state historic register last December, and this listing now gives Door County waters 30 shipwrecks on both the state and national registers.

The shipwreck is located about 0.15 miles northeast of the entrance to the Baileys Harbor marina. It lies 7 feet below the water’s surface in the sandy bottom of the bay, sitting upright and mostly intact with its bow and stern buried beneath the sand. The historical society's news release said the Peoria was recognized because, as an early wooden schooner, it provides historians and archaeologists a rare chance to study construction of such vessels, as well as the grain, lumber and bulk cargo trades of its time.

Along with its significance to maritime archaeologists, the Peoria also might be noteworthy because it sank in the waters off Baileys Harbor in 1880, but was repaired and went back to work, only to sink again off Baileys Harbor 21 years later on its final voyage, near the site of its earlier Baileys Harbor wreck.

The Peoria was built in Ohio over the winter of 1853 and 1854 and carried bulk cargo throughout the Great Lakes throughout her career. She was involved in at least three collisions with other ships between 1856 and 1861, according to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, and had to be repaired numerous times.

The first time the Peoria wrecked off Baileys Harbor came in October of 1880 when a strong gale washed her ashore on the reef at the lighthouse. Her owners abandoned her as a total loss at the time, but a new owner salvaged and rebuilt the boat, putting her back into service in May 1881, according to Wisconsin Shipwrecks.

But on Nov. 10, 1901, the Peoria was heading from Michigan to Chicago with 140,000 feet of hardwood lumber for cargo when she was hit by a southerly gale. The captain attempted to shelter and anchor in the bay off Baileys Harbor, but the anchors apparently slipped and the winds pushed the vessel into shallow water in front of the Baileys Harbor Range Lights, where she quickly settled into the sand.

A crew from the Baileys Harbor Life-Saving Station ventured out to rescue the Peoria's crew of six, which they did, but the ship fell apart in the wind. The historical society said the cargo was salvaged, but there was no insurance on the vessel and, valued at only $2,000, it was stripped, declared a total loss for the second time in its career and left in the water.

The other three Door County shipwrecks named to the state historic register in 2023, like the Peoria all on the Lake Michigan side of the Peninsula, also were named to the national register last year. Those are the Emeline, which lies not far away off Anclam Park in Baileys Harbor, and the lumber schooners Boaz and Sunshine, both in North Bay off Lake Michigan.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime. For more information on the Peoria, visit wisconsinhistory.org or wisconsinshipwrecks.org.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Shipwreck off Baileys Harbor is now a national historic place