A fatal shipwreck lost for 129 years off the Algoma shore in Kewaunee County recently was named to the State Register of Historic Places while an already-registered historic place in Door County was relisted after a positive identification was made on the shipwreck in the site.
The tugboat John Evenson, in the waters of Lake Michigan northeast of Algoma off the town of Ahnapee, was listed Aug. 15 on the state register by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
And the Claflin Point Site in the town of Gardner, which joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, was relisted with the state historic place register after a ship in the water there recently was identified as the wreck of the City of Kalamazoo, which began as a passenger transport for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and ended up as a cargo steamer before meeting its demise.
Here’s what to know about each shipwreck.
The John Evenson
John Evenson, who among other things was captain of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station in Milwaukee in the 1870s and ’80s, built and initially owned and operated the wooden, steam-powered, 54-foot-long tug named after him in Milwaukee in 1884.
According to a news release from the historical society and the vessel’s listing on the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, the Evenson was used for harbor towing and fishing in Milwaukee. Soon it began towing lumber rafts, towing barges through the Sturgeon Bay Canal and towing barges and scows loaded with stone for several different owners, and it eventually made Sturgeon Bay its home port because business was readily available.
The Evenson also caught fire and had collisions with other ships several times throughout its service but was rebuilt to its original proportions.
Its last voyage came on June 5, 1895, when the Evenson responded to a signal for assistance from the steamer I. Watson Stephenson, which was hoping to enter the Sturgeon Bay Canal with two consort schooner barges in rough waters and high winds. Possibly misjudging the speed of the Stephenson and its consorts while attempting to pick up the Stephenson’s towline, the Evenson crossed in front of its bow and was struck in the stern.
The tug rolled over, filled with water and sank within minutes. All of the crew were on deck at the time and able to escape except fireman Martin Boswell, who the Wisconsin Shipwrecks site says was asleep below deck and unable to get out after the vessel rolled and filled with water, going down with the ship. A body believed to be Boswell’s washed ashore in Kewaunee County more than a month later, on July 20, 1895.
The vessel was valued at $3,500. The historical society news release said the Evenson’s owner, Capt. John Laurie, carried only fire insurance on the ship, but the Wisconsin Shipwrecks site says Laurie had received payment for an insurance claim on the Evenson when in 1897 he explored raising it but abandoned the plan when he realized the insurance underwriters would take possession of the ship if it was raised successfully. It soon was declared a total loss.
While the Evenson’s loss was widely reported back in the day, its exact location wasn’t known and the reports of where it sank and the depth of the water at the site varied significantly. Divers began looking for the Evenson in the 1980s, including a Green Bay diving club that offered a $500 reward, all without success.
The Evenson finally was found about four miles northeast of Algoma in about 40 feet of water in a concentrated search for it by maritime archaeologists Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck, who also found the long-lost wrecks of the schooners Trinidad in June 2023 and Margaret A. Muir on June 2024, on Sept. 13, 2024.
Baillod and Jaeck collected all accounts of the loss as well as a customs house wreck report prepared by Laurie, plotted all the locations given and noticed a few clustered in the same small area as that Laurie gave in the wreck report. After finding the wreck and reporting it to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the society’s maritime archaeologists and volunteers surveyed and documented it the same month. The site has not been visited by divers outside the survey.
The historical society news release said the wreck, one of only a few examples of a harbor tug in Wisconsin waters, already has produced a wealth of archaeological knowledge and potentially could yield additional important archaeological data on wooden tugboat construction of the time. Resting on its port side, the Evenson’s hull bed is present along with major pieces of its machinery including the boiler, steam engine, propeller and rudder. Additional hull components may remain nearby beneath the sand.
City of Kalamazoo at the Claflin Point Site
The 6.16-acre Claflin Point Site in Southern Door County was recognized by the national historic place register in 2000 for the unidentified wreck of a large ship that lay just offshore in about 14 feet of water in Little Sturgeon Bay near the bay of Green Bay, almost due east of where Wave Pointe Marina & Resort and Robert M. Carmody County Park are located.
But through additional knowledge, learning and information gathered from resources unavailable at the time the site was listed, the shipwreck described in the original documentation is now identified as the City of Kalamazoo, and its listing has been updated with the wreck’s name and history.
The City of Kalamazoo was built in South Haven, Michigan, by master shipbuilder Capt. John B. Martelle and launched Oct. 22, 1892, with the intention of it being a passenger vessel between South Haven and Chicago, specifically to provide service for the World’s Columbian Exposition, aka the 1893 World’s Fair, according to the state historical society and Wisconsin Shipwrecks.
The 161-foot-long steamer continued as a South Haven-to-Chicago passenger ship following the fair, also carrying freight at times, for the next 18 years. But the night of Nov. 11, 1911, the Kalamazoo was docked in its winter quarters when it mysteriously caught fire, burned to the waterline and sank.
It was refloated in 1912 and the hull was sold to the Greiling Brothers Co. of Green Bay, who rebuilt it in 1914 as a 387-gross ton barge for use in the Sturgeon Bay stone trade. Although it was burned and rebuilt, the vessel retained the same hull lines throughout its career.
The City of Kalamazoo wrecked Sept. 4, 1922. Citing contemporary news stories from the Door County Advocate and Door County News, the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website says the ship was carrying a load of material for building docks in Kenosha and was being towed to Green Bay by the tug Satisfaction when a storm arose over the bay of Green Bay.
The ship sought shelter in Little Sturgeon Bay but struck a reef that tore a hole in its bottom, causing it to sink. Its cargo was unloaded at a nearby pier and the Advocate reported at the time the plan was to repair and raise it, but the City of Kalamazoo owners surrounded its documents and listed it as “abandoned” on Nov. 21 of that year.
Don’t mess with the wrecks
State and federal laws protect the wrecks of the John Evenson and City of Kalamazoo. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting the sites. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying artifacts or sites is a crime.
For more information on the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit wisconsinhistory.org. For more on these wrecks and other Wisconsin shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Recently found, identified shipwrecks in Kewaunee, Door counties are now historic places
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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