For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara O’Keeffe
kara.okeeffe@wisconsinhistory.org
608-261-9596

June 21, 2019

The I.A. Johnson Shipwreck Listed in National Register of Historic Places

Sheboygan, Wis. - The Wisconsin Historical Society has announced the listing of the I.A. Johnson(scow schooner) shipwreck in the vicinity of Sheboygan County, in the National Register of Historic Places. National Register designation provides access to certain benefits, including qualification for grants and for rehabilitation income tax credits, while it does not restrict private property owners in the use of their property.

This shipwreck is located in Lake Michigan. Built in 1867 by J.A. Johnson in Dover Bay, Ohio, theI.A. Johnson was one of a unique class of Great Lakes vessels: the scow schooner. In September 1890, the I.A. Johnson was struck on the port side bow by the schooner Lincoln Dahl while sailing with a light cargo of merchandise for Washington Island, Wisconsin. The vessel was taken in tow by the stern, but the vessel’s transom could not take the stress and separated from the hull causing the ship to sink quickly to the bottom. Today, the I.A. Johnson provides a rare glimpse into a seldom documented Great Lakes vessel type. With only seven other known scow schooners in Wisconsin waters, the I.A. Johnson site provides historians and archaeologists a unique opportunity to study nineteenth-century wooden ship construction techniques and shipboard life on late nineteenth-century Great Lakes merchant vessels.

State and federal laws protect this shipwreck. Divers may not remove artifacts or structure when visiting this site. Removing, defacing, displacing or destroying the artifacts or sites is a crime. More information on Wisconsin’s historic shipwrecks may be found by visiting Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shipwrecks website, www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org.

The register is the official national list of historic properties in America deemed worthy of preservation and is maintained by the National Park Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Wisconsin Historical Society administers the program within Wisconsin. It includes sites, buildings, structures, objects and districts that are significant in national, state or local history, architecture, archaeology, engineering or culture.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visitwww.wisconsinhistory.org.

About Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.

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