DOOR COUNTY, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the Tostenson Pier Archaeological District on the State Register of Historic Places. State Historic Preservation Officer Tricia Canaday presented a certificate to Tamara Thomsen and Amy Rosebrough. The pier and two shipwrecks are submerged in Lake Michigan near the Town of Liberty Grove (Door County).
During Wisconsin’s lumber heyday, Hedgehog Harbor’s business and community life centered around three Lake Michigan piers: Tostenson’s Pier, Weborg’s Pier and Voight’s Pier. Wooden schooners crowded the piers to load cordwood, shingles, and posts bound for the ports of Milwaukee, Racine and Chicago, while others anchored offshore to await their turn. Today, only the remains of the Tostenson Pier remains visible on the lakebed, along with remains of two schooners that once connected Hedgehog Harbor with the southern Lake Michigan port cities.
The two vessels, the scow schooner Maria and the schooner Sardinia, lie alongside the remains of Tostenson’s Pier, the southernmost of Hedgehog Harbor’s piers. On the evening of November 5, 1883, Maria was loading wood destined for Racine at Tostenson’s Pier. The wind shifted as the Maria prepared to leave. The strength and wind direction prevented the ship from gaining enough steerage control to clear the pier, and the vessel was blown up on the beach. The scow was pounded against the rock bottom and shortly went to pieces. The second ship to wreck at Tostenson’s Pier was the schooner Sardinia. On July 6, 1900, Sardinia was loading wood for Milwaukee when a violent gale sprung up to the surprise of its captain and crew, and the vessel was also blown far up on the beach. Again, heavy wind and seas caused the ship to go to pieces only weeks later. In both cases, the remote location of Hedgehog Harbor resulted in the ships’ abandonment. The cost to bring a tug in from a nearby port was cost prohibitive. Today, the pier cribbing and shipwreck sites remain fully submerged beneath the water’s surface, in 10-15 feet of water.
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. More information on Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks may be found by visiting Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks website.
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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.
