Another Door County shipwreck, its 29th, is named to the National Register of Historic Places
LIBERTY GROVE - Less than a month after one shipwreck in North Bay was named to the National Register of Historic Places, a nearby wreck in the same bay has joined it on that list.
The Sunshine, a lumber-carrying scow schooner that sank in the bay in 1869, was added to the National Register on Oct. 30, according to a news release Friday from the Wisconsin Historical Society. That comes after Sunshine's underwater neighbor, the double-centerboard schooner Boaz, joined the national register Oct. 10. Both were named to the Wisconsin State Register of Historic Places in June.
Sunshine was built in 1856 by Jerris Deprees in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Being a scow schooner, her flat bottom meant she might be able to carry cargo into shallow or unimproved harbors. According to the Wisconsin Shipwrecks website, she carried loads of plaster, lumber, cattle, hay, flour and wheat during the Civil War, then hauled lumber after the war.
The website raises the possibility that the Sunshine was an "abolition boat" that ferried runaway slaves from Sandusky, Ohio, (a terminus of the Underground Railroad) into Canada. No information has been found to prove the hypothesis, but the site says many merchants that consigned shipments on the boat were known abolitionists and anti-slavery sympathizers.
On her final voyage on Sept. 29, 1869, the 97-foot-long vessel was heading from White Lake, Michigan, to Chicago with a load of lumber, when it was caught in a gale off the Door County shoreline. Capt. Henry Haussauer tried to make it to the shore, and the ship became beached on a rock ledge in North Bay and captain and crew abandoned ship.
Strong waves reportedly continued to hammer the Sunshine over the next few days as she sat on the ledge, Wisconsin Shipwrecks says, and it was decided she would be a total loss. The schooner was stripped of salvageable items and left in place.
But a couple months later, in late November, more strong winds and high waters in the bay apparently lifted Sunshine off her ledge and sent her drifting in the bay before sinking in shallow water. It was determined the damage was too severe, so she was abandoned where she lay, in 8 to 10 feet of water in the northwestern part of North Bay.
The remains were unidentified until last year and it wasn't even certain how much wreckage was in that spot, because it's broken up and shifting sands on the floor of the bay alternately covered and uncovered portions of it, said Matt Olson, owner of Door County Adventure Rafting, whose tours include a number of shipwreck sites. The vessel does sit upright, although with many pieces under the sand, but the shallower water where she lays makes her accessible, and Olson told the Advocate in June she generally is visible from the water's surface.
Sunshine is the 29th Door County wreck and third this year to gain a listing on the national register, joining the Boaz and the Emeline, a lumber schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off Anclam Park in Baileys Harbor in 1896 and was added to the national register in June.
North Bay plays host to at least one other wreck visible from the surface of the water: the Cherubusco, a 114-foot-long lumber vessel that sank in 1872 and now sits in about 10 feet of water in the middle of the bay.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Door County has 29th shipwreck, second in North Bay, gain historic listing
