The history of the Christina Nilsson began in winter of 1871, when the Manitowoc, Wisconsin, shipyard of Hanson & Scove laid the keel for the new three-masted schooner. Built for Swedish immigrant Charles M. Lindgren of Chicago, who named his new vessel after a world-renowned Swedish diva, the Nilsson measured 139 feet in length, 26 feet in beam and 11 feet in depth of hold. With planking completed in June, the Christina Nilsson's masts were stepped the following month, and the new vessel slid down the ways on August 3, 1871. Local newspapers deemed the Nilsson "a splendid craft," and Hanson & Scove laid the keel for an identical craft the same day the Nilsson was launched.

The Nilsson's maiden voyage commenced on August 7, 1871. Destined for the grain and iron bulk cargo trades, the vessel was first enrolled in Chicago on August 16, 1871, with John Hanson as master. The "trader" classification remained unchanged throughout the vessel's entire career, placing the Nilsson in the same category as thousands of other Great Lakes schooners that proved essential to the economic development of the Great Lakes region. The ship plied the eastern Great Lakes without serious misfortune for two years. In the fall of 1873, however, while enroute from Chicago to Sarnia, Ontario, it encountered a gale off Point Betsy, Michigan east of Sturgeon Bay. The storm blew off two jibs, causing the ship to run to Manitowoc for repairs. With winter approaching, it was questionable whether the Nilsson could be repaired in time to continue its voyage. However, the needed repairs were made in a few days, and Captain Hanson decided to continue the voyage to Sarnia. After departing Manitowoc, the Nilsson "went missing" for two weeks, causing considerable anxiety. The next news heard was that it was safely moored for the winter at Cheboygan, Michigan, in the Straits of Mackinac.

On August 7, 1880, title was transferred to Lindgren's wife, Johanna, at Chicago. By this time the Nilsson also had a new master, N.A. Hammer of Evanston, Illinois. While harbored at Manitowoc over the winter of 1881 to 1882, Hanson & Scove installed new keelsons and performed much needed maintenance, restoring the Nilsson's insurance rating to A-2 from B-1, where it had slipped due to the ship's aging and sailing wear.
The final days at sea for the Christina Nilsson, N. A. Hammer master, began on Thursday, October 23, 1884, when the ship cleared Escanaba, carrying 575 tons of pig iron bound for Chicago. The Nilsson, like thousands of other Great Lakes vessels, fell victim to overwhelming natural forces. The fall storm that claimed the Christina Nilsson stirred up on October 22; ports at Milwaukee, Duluth, and Escanaba all flew cautionary weather flags. The following day, snow and northerly winds were forecasted.

Having crossed Green Bay and successfully navigated Death's Door, the Nilsson turned south and headed for Chicago, sailing just off the Door County Peninsula's eastern shore. By the time it passed the Sturgeon Bay ship canal, the weather had deteriorated into a blinding snowstorm: gale-force winds and high seas. Captain Hammer decided to turn north and run before the storm, as the ship was unable to enter the Sturgeon Bay canal. His intention was to retrace his course 20 miles back up the Door County coastline to the protective shelter of Baileys Harbor. Preparing for a desperate run to safety, Captain Hammer ordered all sails single reefed, meaning partially lowered to prevent storm damage, and turned the Nilsson north.

As the schooner fought its way toward relative safety, the force of the gale and the blinding blizzard forced the Nilsson off-course too far west, and dangerously close to the east shore of Baileys Harbor. Discerning his vessel's perilous position, Captain Hammer attempted to sail eastward to avoid the Outer Reef at Baileys Harbor and gain adequate "sea room" to maneuver. His effort failed, however, and at 8:30 a.m. on October 24, 1884, the Christina Nilsson struck hard upon Outer Reef and began to founder.

The anchor was quickly dropped, causing the vessel's stern to swing around and strike hard on the reef a second time. The Nilsson sank immediately in 15 feet of water. Due to the relatively shallow depth, the vessel was literally pounded to pieces. The Baileys Harbor life-saving station wouldn't be built for another 13 years, so without any possessions and no assistance from shore, all eight crew abandoned the vessel into the yawl. They made their way in the to a small island and obtained refuge. No lives were lost.

A salvage crew from Sturgeon Bay, directed by Captain Williams, initially attempted to refloat the vessel. Divers patched up the Christina Nilsson's bottom, and steam-driven pumps were used to siphon water from the vessel's hold in an attempt to make it buoyant again. However, the salvors' confidence proved misplaced when four steam pumps, working in unison for four hours, lowered the water in the hold only a few inches.

By November 20, however, 250 tons of pig iron had been raised and placed on the Chipman & Roesser's Pier in Baileys Harbor for spring shipment. The plan was to raise another 100 tons of pig iron, buoy the Nilsson up with cedar logs, and have the tug John Gregory pull the schooner off to Chicago. However, unfavorable weather thwarted these plans through early December, when the salvors concluded the Nilsson's bottom was beyond repair. Operations were suspended for the winter. Ultimately, plans to refloat the Nilsson were abandoned, and the vessel was declared a total loss.

The wrecked schooner continued to deteriorate in the shallow, dynamic environment of the reef. On January 15, 1885, a severe storm, compounded by ice accumulation, toppled the mizzenmast, indicating the Nilsson was breaking up, although it was submerged. The vessel's stern, deck and aft cabin had apparently been crushed by ice, leaving nothing but the keelson, which was insufficient to hold the top weight of the mast and standing rigging. By January 29th, the mainmast had been carried away, leaving only the foremast and bowsprit above water. The schooner's deck load of pig iron finally came to rest on the lake bottom. The foremast remained standing until March 5, 1885, when the retreating ice dislodged and carried it away. Divers eventually salvaged the remaining cargo during June and July of 1885. The schooner's remaining rigging was salvaged and brought to Chicago on July 5, 1885, by the schooner A. Ford, thus ending contemporary interest in the Christina Nilsson.
Located one-tenth of a mile east-southeast of the Baileys Harbor lighthouse, the Christina Nilsson's bilge section sits upright on the cobble and bedrock lake bottom in approximately 15 feet of water. This 26-foot by 121-foot section consists of the vessel's lower frames, outer and inner hull planking, centerboard slot, keelson assembly, an intact mast step, and remnants of two pump shafts.

The bilge is a flat, nearly level wooden surface, planked longitudinally in white oak, and fastened with iron spikes. Each ceiling plank is fastened to the underlying frames with four rosette-headed, square-shank iron spikes. The diagonally broken centerboard lies amidships on the bilge wreckage. Notably, this large section, essentially the entire bottom of the vessel, is located at the schooner's point of impact with the limestone reef.

The second feature of the site, a 100-foot by 20-foot fragment of the Nilsson's side, rests in 12 feet of water, roughly 2,000 feet southeast of the main wreckage. This sizable piece consists of 55 sets of frame timbers and long, intact spans of inner and outer hull planking. Most frames are paired together with 1-inch diameter iron fasteners, the heads of which were flattened out over a large washer to prevent the fastener from slipping through the wood. Interestingly, several frame sets near the aft portion of the centerboard trunk are tripled, suggesting the need for additional strength in that area. Aside from a few of these loose fasteners, the only artifact found on the site was a single pig iron. This piece of cargo, however, was illegally removed from the site sometime after 1997.

The two separated sections of the Nilsson are structurally intact and well preserved, providing a unique glimpse into the design, construction, and workmanship of post-Civil War Great Lakes schooners. The vessel represents the apex of Great Lakes schooner construction and demonstrates what skilled Wisconsin shipwrights could create from bountiful local timber. Few construction plans for Great Lakes schooners built prior to 1880 have survived, making the Nilsson an important a source of archaeological data as well as a tangible icon of nineteenth-century waterborne trade on the Great Lakes.

Archaeologists from the WHS and the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association have been investigating the Christina Nilsson shipwreck site since its discovery in 1997. Much of the archaeological and historical information generated between 1997 and 2003 is being "repackaged" for outreach and education initiatives. These interpretive materials stress the historic value of the shipwreck and encourage divers to adhere to "zero impact" diving practices.