Marinette County shipwreck added to National Register of Historic Places
A Northeast Wisconsin shipwreck has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The wreck of the Sidney O. Neff was added to the register Nov. 7. This follows listing on the State Register of Historic Places in September.
Since 1939, the wreck has sat in 10-15 feet of water on the bottom of Green Bay in Lake Michigan, near the entrance to the Marinette Harbor.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Sidney O. Neff was launched on Nov. 25, 1890, from the Burger & Burger shipyard in Manitowoc. It worked in the Great Lakes lumber trade into the early 20th century. The ship was sent to Milwaukee in 1898 to be converted into a single screw steambarge. From 1919 to 1924, it was known as the M.C. & M.C. No. 2.
“This vessel spent all of its life working in the Great Lakes region, but because of the work that it was doing, it was able to fuel the growth of Milwaukee and Chicago,” said Caitlin Zant, maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society. “It reached hinterland communities up in northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan that, really, some of the only ways transportation was occurring to those areas easily was via waterways.”
By 1934, the Sidney O. Neff was sitting at harbor in Marinette while it awaited the outcome of a court case. Eventually, it was declared unseaworthy and abandoned in the Menominee River at the east end of the Marinette Fuel & Dock Company slip. In 1939, its machinery was salvaged and the Sidney O. Neff was towed outside the Marinette Harbor and sunk.
The Sidney O. Neff currently sits upright and broken. Many of its hull components remain, with artifacts including the engine and propeller.
The historical society says the wreck allows historians and archaeologists to study the construction of early converted wooden steambarges in the Great Lakes lumber trade.
National Register of Historic Places protection means that divers may not remove artifacts or structure from the wreck.
Zant says, depending on water conditions, the wreck mat be visible to boaters on the surface.
Fox 11 News
St. Joseph Harbor dredging delayed by weather
St. Joseph Harbor traffic has been severely limited the last five weeks due to debris in the water.
And if they weather doesn’t improve, it could take even longer for the harbor to be fully operational again.
In mid-November, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to King Company of Holland, Michigan to dredge the St Joseph Harbor. The 1.3-million-dollar contract was awarded quickly, but the project reached another snag
This all stems from an incident involving a 630-foot-long carrier.
In mid-October, it ran aground due to the large amount of sand and debris built up on the lake floor, at the mouth of the harbor.
Now after the surveys, all the pieces are in place.
“The Corps of Engineers worked diligently along with everyone else involved, all the stakeholders, all the politicians, members of the public everybody came together and got behind this, and within a month, we had a contract in place,” said Mike Moran, St. Joseph Harbormaster.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the King Company was supposed to dredge over 14 thousand cubic yards of debris by the end of December. But the weather has once again caused crews to hit the brakes.
“If the weather isn’t cooperating, if the waves are too rough or the winds are too high, we can’t get the equipment towed down safely, so right now we’re just waiting for the weather to cooperate,” said Moran.
This is not the first time King Company has dredged the St. Joseph Harbor.
They did work back in the summer of 2020, as well as a few other related projects.
Therefore, they’re familiar with the area and the challenges Lake Michigan brings.
But until dredging can be completed, the harbor cannot take in large vessels.
Some can get into the harbor with assistance of tugboats, but it puts a strain on an already difficult process.
“Using extra tugboats adds to the complexity and the time and the cost of material overall, so it’s definitely not an ideal situation,” said Moran.
Moran says it isn’t the end of the world if they can’t get the dredging done this year their focus would then shift to the first available time in the spring.
Despite these roadblocks, the Harbormaster is optimistic about getting things back to normal.
Now, it’s up to Mother Nature to see when the dredging can start.
WWMT
