Another Kewaunee County shipwreck was given special distinction this month when the schooner Margaret A. Muir was placed on the State Register of Historic Places. Discovered last May, the Muir was a 130-foot ship built in Manitowoc to supplement the grain trade across the Great Lakes. The ship was on its way to South Chicago with a full load of bulk salt from Michigan when it encountered rough winds after clearing the Straits of Mackinac. It was not until the Muir was near Ahnapee (present-day Algoma) that it was realized that the ship was taking on water, and it eventually sank on September 30th, 1893. It was discovered by Brendon Baillod, Robert Jaeck, and Kevin Cullen, who also found the Trinidad and, most recently, the John Evenson. The trio found all three shipwrecks within an approximately two-year time frame. After finding the Evenson last fall, Baillod said a lot of work goes into their process to discover these ships lost in time.
Other sites of significance recognized by the Wisconsin Historical Society this month include St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marquette County, the New Glarus Hotel in Green County, the Gay Building (now called the Churchill Building) in Dane County, and Root River Parks in Racine County. Root River Parks was designed by Jens Jensen, who founded The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, created the curvy road leading to Northport, and helped establish The Ridges Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor.
