TOWN OF MARINETTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – 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 steam barges 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 may be visible to boaters on the surface.
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