Higgins Pier / Frogtown
Gallery
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Higgins Pier site plan
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Crib timbers and stones
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Crib timbers and stones
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Crib timbers
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Crib timbers and stones
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Possible Higgins Pier layout, overlaid on a modern aerial image
 
Details
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Green Bay/Door County
Year Built: 1866
Nearest Address: 7797 Frogtown Rd, Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, 54202
Nearest City: Baileys Harbor
County: Door
Zip Code: 54202
Latitude: N 45° 03.019247'
Longitude: W -87° 07.336398'
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
Attraction
Description
Higgins Pier, located one mile south of Baileys Harbor in Door County, was built in 1866 by the father-and-son team of William and Allen Higgins. At the time, Moses Kilgore owned an established lumber pier a mile to the north near the new, growing community of Baileys Harbor. By August 1866, the Higgins family had constructed a line of cribs and planking extending 710 feet offshore to a depth of ten feet of water, with a 54-foot-wide staging/loading area at the end of the pier. A steam powered sawmill was established nearby. A year later, William and Allen extended the pier 70 feet further. In 1869, they extended it another 240 feet, resulting in a total length of 1,010 feet. In 1870, J. T. Wright opened Peninsula House, a tavern and hotel, at the Higgins Pier complex, which also included a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, workmen's homes, and the homes of William and Allen Higgins and their families. William Higgins died in 1874, leaving the pier complex to his son. Allen Higgins had the pier re-planked in 1880. On October 16 of that year, the infamous Alpena Blow struck the harbor. It was a massive storm named after the sinking of the steamship Alpena in the middle of Lake Michigan. The storm forced seven ships that were sheltering in Baileys Harbor onto the beach and the Higgins pier was nearly demolished. Allen Higgins accepted a job in the Door County courts and sold the pier in its unrepaired state. No additional demolition or activity occurred and the pier stood abandoned until an autumn gale washed the remnants away in 1951. Much of the stone and some of the cribbing timbers still remain.
 
Map
 
Nearby
Attractions (8)
Baileys Harbor Lighthouse (Old)
Baileys Harbor Range Lights
Cana Island Lighthouse
Christina Nilsson Buoy
Christina Nilsson Maritime Trails Marker
Frank O'Connor Maritime Trails Marker
Higgins Pier / Frogtown
Mud Bay Quarry Company / Toft Point
Shipwrecks (24)
Agnes Willie (1862)
Belle (1848)
Chicago
Christina Nilsson (1871)
E.P. Royce (1873)
Ebenezer (1863)
Emeline (1864)
F.J. King (1867)
Fairfield (1846)
Frank O'Connor (1892)
View 14 more
Shipwrecks (24)
Agnes Willie (1862)
Belle (1848)
Chicago
Christina Nilsson (1871)
E.P. Royce (1873)
Ebenezer (1863)
Emeline (1864)
F.J. King (1867)
Fairfield (1846)
Frank O'Connor (1892)
Free Democrat (1853)
Illinois (1848)
Janette (?)
John C. Fremont (1856)
Joseph Cochrane (1856)
Josephine Lawrence (1854)
Lewis Cass (1846)
M. Capron (1875)
M.J. Bartelme (1895)
Peoria (1854)
South Side (1867)
Two Katies (1873)
Warren (1835)
Windsor (1856)
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