Amsterdam Pier
Gallery
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Amsterdam Park and Beach
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Amsterdam Park and Beach, facing south.
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Map of the town of Amsterdam from "An illustrated historical atlas of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin" by G. A. Randall and Co., 1875.
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Portion of 1880 nautical chart by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showing the town of Amsterdam.
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Plat map of the town of Amsterdam from "Plat book of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin" by Charles M. Foote, 1889.
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Archaeological site plan of Amsterdam.
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Fishing pier and shanties at Amsterdam, ca. 1930s (SCHRC Image No. 261-11-20)
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Photo of Smies Fish Company at Amsterdam in 1956. Fish are shoveled into the fish cart and pushed along the pier to the fishhouse to be prepared for the Chicago market. Photo by Vern Arendt, photographer for the Ozaukee Press, as part of a story that appeared in the Picture Journal insert of the Milwaukee Journal's September 23, 1956 issue (SCHRC Image No. 261-44-17).
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Sail-powered and gas-powered fishing boats near Amsterdam, about 1895 (SCHRC Image No. 533-74-68)
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Fisherman’s pier and shanty at Amsterdam, 1939 (SCHRC Image No. 261-15-2)
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Abram Smies, Sr., of D. Smies’ Sons Fishery shovels fish into the boat from a pound net pocket, 1956 (SCHRC Image No. 261-44-9). Photo by Vern Arendt, photographer for the Ozaukee Press, as part of a story that appeared in the Picture Journal insert of the Milwaukee Journal's September 23, 1956 issue.
 
Details
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Mid Lake Michigan
Year Built: 1851
Nearest Address: W1945 Amsterdam Rd
Nearest City: Cedar Grove
County: Sheboygan
Zip Code: 53013
Latitude: N 43° 33.488'
Longitude: W -87° 47.366'
Attraction
Features
Open to public?: Yes
Mooring buoy?: No
Mooring buoy in place?: No
Snorkelable?: Yes
Dive guide?: No
Trails sign?: No
National Register?: No
Attraction
Description
The former village of Amsterdam, established by the forefather of one of Wisconsin’s most famous fisheries, was located on the lakeshore halfway between Sheboygan to the north and Port Washington to the south. Amsterdam Park and Beach, on Lake Michigan where the village once stood, is about a mile east of Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, in Holland Township in Sheboygan County. Gilbert H. Smith – father of Herbert, Delos, and Roy Smith of the long-lived Smith Brothers Fish Company of Port Washington – bought the land in Holland Township in 1850 and submitted the first official plat map of the proposed village to Sheboygan County in 1852. Smith and his father, William, came to Wisconsin in 1847 from the area around Pulaski, New York, near Lake Ontario. They briefly lived in Port Washington but moved to the area that would become Amsterdam in 1848 and established a fishery. William Smith died soon after, leaving the fishery to his son.

Following the establishment of Amsterdam, early residents built a pier in 1851 to bring in goods from elsewhere and ship out local products. Some sources suggest that Dutch immigrant Hendrik Walvoord and his son, Gerrett Jan Walvoord, constructed the pier while others credit Gilbert H. Smith as the pier builder. Hendrik and Gerrett Walvoord came with other family members to Holland Township in late 1849. They began trading in forestry products, opening a general store to provide groceries and general merchandise in payment for cordwood, staves, and other products from local farmers. On 11 July 1856, Gerrett Walvoord tragically lost his life while working on the pier. Walvoord fell off the pier and was pinned underwater when several logs toppled in after him. Gerrett’s father and his wife, Anna Maria Engel Nolton Walvoord, continued to operate the general store after his death. But when the store burned down in January 1857, the family did not rebuild.

Records indicate the Amsterdam pier extended 1,000 feet offshore from Main Street, now Amsterdam Road, and had a water depth of 22 feet at its end, adequate for docking most vessels of the day. Amsterdam had at least two general stores, a blacksmith shop, a tavern, a cooperage, and a school at the village’s height. In 1872, when the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway became the first railroad to pass through the area, the town’s fortunes changed. The railroad was built further inland, passing through Cedar Grove. This new shipping option, combined with depleted timber stocks in the region, reduced the need for lake shipping. Several Amsterdam residents moved to Cedar Grove at this time. Some even placed their homes on skids during the winter and hauled them to Cedar Grove with teams of oxen.

But not everyone left Amsterdam, especially those who fished the waters of Lake Michigan. Throughout the history of the village of Amsterdam, fishing was an important industry. Gilbert H. Smith and his sons Herbert and Delos fished near Amsterdam for years, possibly as late as the 1880s. Other fisheries at Amsterdam included the Amsterdam Fish Company, owned by Jimmy and Adolph Stokdyk, and the Smies & Zurmond Fish Company, operated by Edgar Smies and Peter Zurmond. Other family names associated with fishing in the area include DeWitt, DeZoute, Grotenhuis, Huibregtse, Ingelse, Kobes, Kolste, Moennig, Nath, Roerdink, Van Der Jagt, VanDrieste, Weiskamp, and Westerbeke. Daniel Smies, Sr., began pound-net fishing in Amsterdam in 1871 and shipped salted fish in barrels from the pier until the railroad came to Cedar Grove. Daniel Sr.’s sons John, Abram Sr., Peter, and Daniel Jr.; grandson Jannes; and other relatives worked in the fishery. In 1938, Daniel Smies, Jr., and Jim Weiskamp took over the Amsterdam Fish Company from Jimmy and Adolph Stokdyk. Local resident Abram Smies, Jr. – grandson of Daniel Smies, Sr. – recalled working in the pound-net fishery and transporting fish from Amsterdam to the railroad depot in Cedar Grove.

White fish and sturgeon were the most abundant fish early in the community’s history. As white fish and sturgeon stocks declined, chubs, herring, and trout still filled the nets. The earliest days of fishing in Amsterdam were conducted close to shore using sailboats and seine nets. As the industry evolved, fisherfolk set off from shore in motorboats and drove their pound net stakes into the lakebed with steam- or gasoline-powered pile drivers.

As native fishing stocks declined, particularly after the introduction of the sea lamprey into Lake Michigan in the 1930s and alewives in the 1940s, the once thriving fishing industry collapsed. Most of the commercial fisheries around Amsterdam closed by the mid-1950s. Founder Gilbert H. Smith had ambitious goals for the village of Amsterdam and the settlement grew due to the abundant nearby natural resources of timber and fish. But as these resources declined and alternate transportation networks evolved, like the railway in nearby Cedar Grove, the settlement of Amsterdam plateaued. Envisioned by its founder as a gridded, bustling village of farmers, fisherfolk, and business owners, Amsterdam never fully lived up to its platted potential.
 
Map
 
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