AH-WR-0493

Frank D. Barker

Canal Schooner · United States · Lost 1887 · Door County & Lake Michigan

A canal schooner lost to fog near Rowleys Bay in 1887 and rediscovered by a Door County tour guide 138 years later.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Built in 1867 at Clayton, New York, as an 'extreme canaller' able to fit the Welland Canal's locks, Frank D. Barker carried grain, iron ore, coal, and lumber throughout the Great Lakes for two decades. In 1887 she ran aground on a limestone outcropping near Rowleys Bay in Door County during dense fog while bound for Escanaba, Michigan. Her wreck went undiscovered for 138 years until a local tour guide spotted it in satellite imagery in 2025, and Wisconsin Historical Society archaeologists confirmed her identity.

Vessel

Built: 1867
Registry: US registry no. 9165
Builder: John Cantwell
Yard: Clayton, New York
Material: Wood
Length: 137.5 ft
Beam: 26 ft
Tonnage: 304.77
Propulsion: Sail, two masts
Owners: Thomas Wilford, Truman Moore, Celia E. Conley, Thomas Gawn, and Adolph E. Flinck, Lorain, Ohio (at loss)

Loss

Date: January 1, 1887
Cause: Grounding
Location: Near the entrance to Rowleys Bay, Door County
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Escanaba, Michigan
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 20 ft
Condition: Bottom of the hull largely intact but sides split open and flattened by decades of wind, wave, and ice action.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 2025
Protection: Not established