Appleport / Porth's Pier
Gallery
img
Appleport Pier & Emma Leighton Shipwreck Site Map
img
Historic Image of Appleport Pier
img
Archaeologists and Volunteers Document the Planks Discovered at the Site.
img
Pier Planking
img
Steam Cylinder
img
Historic Photograph of Fishing house and dock at Appleport with small boats. Jim Mielke Collection
 
Details
Attraction
Description
Appleport was founded by a Swedish immigrant named Axel Appel in 1883. Appel immigrated to the United States with his family in 1872 and eventually settled the town of Liberty Grove. Appel had set up a farmstead and based on the seasons, split his time between farming and lumbering. This brought Appel enough income to start a business of his own and purchased land on Lake Michigan for construction of his own pier. Due to the shallow depth offshore of Appel's pier site, a massive line of cribs was required to reach a deeper depth where cargo schooners could safely dock.


Stone crib after stone crib was sunk into the lake until the structure extended 1,300 feet from shore. After its initial success with 600 cords of tanning bark and 400 cords of wood being shipped out, business slowed down. During the winter lumber was cut and gathered at the pier until it could be shipped out in Spring. In 1884 Appel decided to extend the pier even further by 200 feet making it 1,500 feet long. Legal troubles developed for Appel when seventy thousand feet of pin brought by Otto Anderson went missing. Anderson had accidentally engaged in the illicit lumber trade that had developed in the Great Lakes region at the time, people would remove trees from public lands without paying the federal government. Anderson believed that he had harvested lumber on his own property, but the government still held legal title to the land at the time the trees were felled. Therefore, federal authorities seized the lumber and sold it at auction to Sturgeon Bay Lumber Co. Wildfires then broke out and burned through Appel's remaining stockpiles of lumber.


Appel took the situation into his own hands when realizing that Anderson took his money for pine he wasn't legally able to sell, he should return the money. Anderson refused to reimburse Appel, so Appel had sent a constable to seize a team of oxen, a set of blacksmith tools, and several cords of wood from Anderson as compensation. Anderson, outraged at the seizure, wanted his property back. This resulted in several legal battles which resulted in Anderson having his property returned. Appel would sell the pier to H.C. Porth in fall 1884.


H.C. Porth was a Milwaukee businessman, who came north and had the Pier complex and general store renovated and made arrangement for its management. The pier would be extended another seventy two feet and could host two ships at once. The pier would be used to supply wood from Door County down to Milwaukee. The pier was gathering so much wood that the residents of the Appleport area ran out of horse teams to move it. On 8 September 1885 the schooners Emma Leighton and Belle arrived to pick up at Porth's pier. A strong wind then howled from the east-northeast driving heavy seas towards the exposed pier. The Emma Leighton cast off to anchor in safer waters offshore. The storm increased in intensity until the schooner was dragging its anchor until it crashed through Porth's Pier with enough force to carry away seven of the heavy stone-filled cribs that supported the pier decking. The Emma Leighton's windlass was torn out before the ship grounded on shore where it was joined by the Belle. The Pier was out of commission. H.C. Porth passed away not long later.


The pier then came under the the ownership of the Bassford Brothers. Who had repaired and restocked the general store. They had contracted with the schooner Tempest to carry lumber and passengers for Appleport. The Pier then came under ownership of John Anclam of Bailey's Harbor. Lumber continued to be harvested and shipped south. By 1893 the pier was no longer profitable as all the lumber had be harvested. Anclam sold the pier to fishermen John Oleson where the pier was used for commercial fishing. The lumber pier had degraded. A smaller fishing pier and shanty near the lumber pier's remains serviced the fishing vessels. Eventually, Appleport became a cherry orchard and the fishing shacks were used to house migrant workers who came to pick the cherries. The shallow, rocky shoreline at Appleport has nod aided in the preservation of this complex.
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Green Bay/Door County
Year Built: 1883
Nearest Address: 1196 Appleport Road
Nearest City: Rowleys Bay
County: Door
Zip Code: 54234
Latitude: N 45°11'8.18"N'
Longitude: W -87°° 2'27.05"W'
Attraction
Features
Open to public?: No
Mooring buoy?: No
Mooring buoy in place?: No
Snorkelable?: Yes
Dive guide?: No
Trails sign?: No
National Register?: No
 
Map
 
Nearby
Attractions (1)
Appleport / Porth's Pier
© 2025 - Wisconsin Sea Grant, Wisconsin Historical Society