Wisconsin boater discovers 1887 shipwreck on coast of Lake Michigan
By Aki Nace
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WISCONSIN (WCCO) — A ship that crashed on the coast of Lake Michigan nearly 140 years ago was recently discovered by a boater in Door County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Historical Society says the Frank D. Barker was sailing for Escanaba, Michigan in 1887 when it hit bad weather and ran off course. The crew was stranded on Spider Island, Wisconsin, and recovery efforts for the ship were unsuccessful.
Newspapers at the time listed Spider Island as the crash site, which the historical society says likely played a role in previous unsuccessful attempts to find the ship. Now it lies under 24 feet of water in Barker Shoal.
The Frank D. Barker was a two-masted 137-foot vessel designed for transporting grain from ports in Milwaukee and Chicago to Lake Ontario. When it returned west, it brought coal from Lake Erie. At the time of the wreck, the vessel was valued at $8,000, which is worth over $250,000 in modern day, the Wisconsin Historical Society says.
The vessel was found by Matt Olson, who has found two other shipwrecks in the last two years.
“It’s an incredible feeling to come across a shipwreck of this size and in such great condition, especially knowing how long it went undetected,” Olson said.
The Wisconsin Historical Society says a maritime archaeology team is working to fund an archeological survey next year to document the site.
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