Maritime archaeologists recently confirmed a newly found shipwreck off Wisconsin as the Frank D. Barker. One hundred thirty-eight years after the schooner sank in 1887, it was located near Rowleys Bay in an area known as Barker Shoal, and the discovery happened by accident.
Matt Olson, owner of Door County Adventure Rafting, discovered the wreck while scouting sites near Rowleys Bay and later, at home, noticed a dark discoloration on Lake Michigan satellite images that resembled a hull. Using sonar and an underwater camera, he led his own expedition. “It’s an incredible feeling to come across a shipwreck of this size and in such great condition,” said Olson, according to The Independent. He reported the find to the State Historic Preservation Office, then returned to the site; from the surface, the outline was faintly visible, and he was surprised no one had found it yet.
From what Olson observed, the bottom of the hull is largely intact, and the sides have split open and flattened like a fillet after years of wind, waves, and ice. Under algae and zebra mussels, he saw the remains of a vessel more than 40 meters long. Archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society confirmed the assessment. “What’s really cool about this wreck is that the whole thing is there. It’s spread out on the bottom, almost like pieces of a puzzle that you could assemble in your mind and put back together,” said Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society’s State Historic Preservation Office, according to NBC News.
The Frank D. Barker was a 137-foot two-masted wooden schooner built in 1867 by veteran shipbuilder Simon G. Johnson in Clayton, New York. It was a canaller designed for the Great Lakes and to pass through the Welland Canal, which allowed ships to bypass Niagara Falls. Built to haul grain and coal, it carried grain from Milwaukee and Chicago to Lake Ontario, and on westbound trips typically hauled coal from Lake Erie ports to the Midwest.
In September 1887, the Frank D. Barker sailed from Manistee, Michigan, to Escanaba, Michigan, to pick up iron ore when the weather deteriorated. Caught in thick fog, the schooner went off course and ran aground on a limestone outcropping near Rowleys Bay on Wisconsin’s Door County Peninsula. The captain and crew encountered bad weather and fog, abandoned ship, and took refuge on nearby Spider Island. No deaths were reported. Succumbing to waves and wind, the vessel eventually sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan in an area that became known as Barker Shoal. The name Barker Shoal may have come from the shipwreck itself, as shoal means shallow.
Historical records show five failed rescue and salvage attempts between 1887 and 1888 - one in October 1887 and others in June, August, September, and October of 1888. Attempts to recover the vessel after the grounding were unsuccessful, and it was abandoned. The loss was estimated at $8,000 at the time, equivalent to more than $250,000 today, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Thomsen led the identification efforts. She and colleagues spent weeks reviewing newspaper clippings, archival insurance documents, and port enrollments - records similar to motor vehicle registrations - and conducted dives to search for identifying characteristics. At the time of the sinking, newspapers placed the accident closer to Spider Island, which likely contributed to decades of fruitless searches.
Door County has more than 250 known wrecks scattered in its waters due to challenging sailing conditions. These discoveries allow people to better understand how the Great Lakes were used over the years. The Wisconsin Historical Society planned an investigation for May with the goal of listing the wreck on the National Register of Historic Places. The site is protected by U.S. federal laws and Wisconsin state laws; all removal is prohibited under penalty of prosecution.
For Olson, the discovery was both personal and shared. Finding the Frank D. Barker after 138 years marked an exciting moment for Door County. He took his wife and six-year-old son, Magnus, snorkeling above the wreck site, giving his son a first experience of snorkeling on a shipwreck. Olson previously identified other shipwrecks, including the Sunshine, a scow schooner listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023, and he reported the Grey Eagle last year.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.