The Pilot Island NW Site is the site of three

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

s on the northwest side of

Pilot Island Pilot Island is an island in Lake Michigan in the Town of Washington, in Door County, Wisconsin; it is part of Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge. An abandoned lighthouse, the Pilot Island Light, rests on the island, and three shipwrecks rest in ...

in Door County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The shipwrecks lie in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

under of water;

buoy A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. Types Navigational buoys * Race course marker buoys are used for buoy racing, the most prevalent form of yac ...

s placed by the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

mark their locations. The first ship, the ''Forest'', sank at a shoal on Pilot Island on October 28, 1891, while attempting to pass through

Porte des Morts Porte des Morts, also known as Porte des Mortes, the Door of Death, and Death's Door is a strait linking Lake Michigan and Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay between the northern tip of the Door Peninsula and the southernmost of the Potawatom ...

. In 1892, the ''J.E. Gilmore'' sank at the site while navigating the passage on October 17. The third ship, the ''A.P. Nichols'', sank at the site in a storm on October 28 of the same year. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 19, 1992.

References

Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Door County, Wisconsin Maritime incidents in 1891 Maritime incidents in 1892 1891 establishments in Wisconsin 1892 establishments in Wisconsin {{Wisconsin-NRHP-stub