KEWAUNEE COUNTY, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Sandy Bay Pier in the National Register of Historic Places on May 21, 2026. The pier was active in Kewaunee County from 1851 to circa 1885.
The Sandy Bay Pier is a surviving early resource that reflects Euro-American settlement in Kewaunee County and the Great Lakes region. The Sandy Bay Pier represents the rural coastal heritage of the area, including the infrastructure that facilitated the creation of the agrarian economy during the Colonization era. The pier served as a point of export, import and resupply, serving residents and owners of the adjacent Sandy Bay sawmill and commercial complex in the years surrounding the 1854 Treaty of the Wolf River. It signifies the importance of the lumber trade during a time of immigration in the area.
The pier has provided insight into economic activity and may in the future answer questions relating to the role of shoreline transportation features in these broad patterns of history. Archaeological deposits around the pier have the potential to supplement historic records regarding the often-unnoted people who worked on the pier, trod its decks and frequented the waters around it.
Additional information for the Sandy Bay Pier is available here.
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About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.
