Baileys Harbor Shipwreck Listed in National Register of Historic Places

In April, the Wisconsin Historical Society announced the listing of the Peoria Shipwreck in the National Register of Historic Places.

The schooner is located 0.15 miles northeast of Baileys Harbor in Door County.

The schooner Peoria was constructed in 1854 by master carpenter Alanson Gilmore in Black River, Ohio, and operated in the Great Lakes through the grain, lumber and other bulk cargo trades for almost 50 years.

On November 10, 1901, Peoria was bound from Charlevoix, Michigan, with a cargo of hardwood lumber when it waited out a storm in Baileys Harbor.

During the night, the anchors slipped.

The storm pushed the schooner into shallow water in front of the Baileys Harbor Range Lights, settling into the sand quickly.

Men from the Baileys Harbor Life-Saving Station rescued the crew of six, but the vessel remained stuck.

The vessel sits upright and largely intact 7 feet below the surface in Lake Michigan.

Peoria provides historians and archaeologists the rare chance to study wooden schooner construction and the grain, lumber and other bulk cargo trades.

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