Sandy Bay Pier in Kewaunee County, August 2025. (Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society)
(WTAQ-WLUK) — A Kewaunee County pier and 130-year-old shipwreck were recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Sandy Bay Pier is located in the town of Carlton, near the former Kewaunee Power Station and the John Evenson (Tugboat) Shipwreck is located in Lake Michigan near the town of Ahnapee and city of Algoma.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Sandy Bay Pier is a surviving early resource that reflects Euro-American settlement in Kewaunee County and the Great Lakes region. 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.
Last year, the John Evenson tugboat was added to the State Register of Historic Places. The shipwreck was discovered by historians Brendon Baillod and Bob Jaeck on Sept. 13, 2024, making it the third significant shipwreck discovered by pair in the last three years.
The Evenson was a 54-foot tugboat built in 1884 in Milwaukee as a harbor and towing tug. It was lost in June of 1895 while assisting a big steamer entering the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal.
Divers began looking for the ship in the 1980’s without success. Some reports stated the ship was lost in 300 feet of water while others reported 50 feet.
The vessel rests on its port side. Its hull bed is present along with major pieces of its machinery including boiler, steam engine, propeller and rudder. Additional hull components may remain in the area and beneath the sand. As one of only a few examples of a harbor tug in Wisconsin waters, John Evenson provides historians and archaeologists the chance to study wooden tugboat construction.
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