Langworthy / Casco Pier
Gallery
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1876 Map of Casco Pier, Pierce Township, from "Map of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin" by E. M. Harney and M. G. Tucker
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Possible Casco Pier layout, overlaid on a 1938 aerial image
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Waves break on the sandbar at the mouth of the creek near the former location of Casco Pier, looking north, May 2023
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Near the creek by the former location of Casco Pier, looking south, May 2023
 
Details
Attraction
Location
Body of Water: Lake Michigan
Trail Name: Mid Lake Michigan
Year Built: 1871
Nearest Address: N6684 WI-42, Algoma, WI 54201
Nearest City: Algoma
County: Kewaunee
Zip Code: 54201
Latitude: N 44° 34.053'
Longitude: W 87° 27.379'
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
Langworthy Pier, or Casco Pier, was located about two miles south of Algoma in Kewaunee County. The pier was initially built by David Hill, a Yankee from New York, in 1871. After the devastating fires of fall 1871 - remembered especially for the Peshtigo and Chicago Fires - Edward Decker purchased Hill's coastal properties and completed the pier. Decker intended to ship goods via the pier from the inland town of Casco, which Decker had established in the late 1850s. Decker was originally from Casco Bay, Maine; he went west in search of fortune when he turned 18, landing first in Milwaukee, then Oshkosh, and then Kewaunee County. Decker was an all-around businessman, speculating in real estate, establishing mills in Casco, founding the Kewaunee Enterprise newspaper, and serving in several county offices.

In 1872, Decker partnered with Clinton B. Fay to form C. B. Fay & Company, which operated the mills and store in Casco, the pier, and the associated pier store. As with many other vanished pier communities, timber products were the mainstay of the Casco Pier. Fay & Co. shipped out lumber, shingles, staves, posts, ties, bark, and cordwood. In 1874, the pier was completed to a length of 1,830 feet with a depth of 12 feet at its end, making it one of the longest piling piers on the west side of Lake Michigan. At its lakeward terminus, the pier was 60 feet wide and could accommodate numerous vessels.

In late 1877, Decker and Fay dissolved their business partnership, with Fay retaining ownership of the Casco store and Casco Pier. By 1879, the surrounding pine forests had been felled and business at the pier slowed considerably. After Fay suffered a major injury from a wagon accident during the 1879 harvest, the pier and community fell into decline. Fay left for Kansas and sold his Casco interests back to Decker, who sold the pier complex to C. W. Baldwin of Montpelier, Wisconsin, in 1882. Baldwin renovated the sawmill and had it back in operation by summer 1882. He adding a grist and flour mill in 1883. But in April 1887, the millpond and creek flooded during a sudden spring thaw. Except for the water wheel, the entire mill complex was washed away. Promises to rebuild never materialized and Casco faded away. Today, nothing on the landscape would suggest that a bustling mill and pier community once stood along this quiet, isolated shore.

The latitude/longitude coordinates listed above will take you to the presumed landward terminus of Langworthy/Casco Pier. No traces of Casco Pier have been located to date, but the pier likely stretched east or southeast into Lake Michigan from the shore a little northeast of Wayside Park and the modern intersection of 9th Road and State Trunk Highway 42 in Pierce Township, Kewaunee County. If you find evidence of the pier, or think you have, please take a photograph, get coordinates (latitude and longitude preferred, but other coordinate systems work too), and email the Office of the State Archaeologist at statearchaeologist@wisconsinhistory.org.
 
Map
 
Nearby
Attractions (5)
Alaska Pier
Algoma North Pierhead Light
Daniel Lyons Buoy
Daniel Lyons Maritime Trails Marker
Langworthy / Casco Pier
Shipwrecks (9)
Almira (1849)
Charlotte (1853)
Daisy (1876)
Daniel Lyons (1873)
John Evenson (1884)
Lady Ellen (1875)
Sea Bird (1857)
Trinidad (1867)
W.L. Baker (1883)
Shipwrecks (9)
Almira (1849)
Charlotte (1853)
Daisy (1876)
Daniel Lyons (1873)
John Evenson (1884)
Lady Ellen (1875)
Sea Bird (1857)
Trinidad (1867)
W.L. Baker (1883)
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