NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8-86) Wisconsin Word Processing Format (Approved 3/87) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Schooner-Barge NOQUEBAY Town of La Pointe Section 8 Page 3 Ashland County, Wi. use patterns and practices, the woods could handle only 10 more years of logging (Lusignan 1986). These predictions caused a major decline and changes in the lumbering industry. A lower grade of trees were used, and the cutting of hardwoods, mainly maple and oak, increased. This decline can be seen in the number of sawmills in operation. In 1900, Wisconsin was first in the nation with over 1000 sawmills, but by 1925 there were only 250 mills in operation (Fries 1951). As a result, lumber slipped from its place as the leading industry in the state. A wide range and great number of vessels were engaged in transporting lumber and lumber products on the Great Lakes waters of Wisconsin, and consequently, quite a few have ended as shipwrecks. These include schooners, brigantines, and scow- schooners, steamers including steam-barges, and barges. Lumber was first shipped in Lake Michigan by the 1830s, generally by schooners (Mansfield 1899) . The number of lumber carriers on the Great Lakes increased from 50 in 1840 to over 500, carrying 8, 000 cargos a year, by 1885. Much of the increase was due to the expansion of metropolitan areas such as Chicago and Milwaukee (Mansfield 1899) . For instance, Milwaukee received 30,000 million board feet in lumber in 1860. This had increased five-fold by 1897. Only 40,000 million board feet in lumber was delivered to Milwaukee by rail (Mansfield 1899). Schooner-barges developed out of a need to transport large quantities of bulk material economically after the Civil War (Carrell 1985:14-16) . This resulted in a "consort system" in which heavily laden barges were towed by tugs or steam barges. Schooner- barges included schooners renovated into barges, or specially constructed schooner-barges. The main difference between schooner- barges and schooners is the reduction in the sail and rigging area in the former. The masts were shorter (sometimes deliberately cut down), and usually totalled two to three in number. Deckhousing was usually removed from converted schooners, and hatches were added. A pilothouse was sometimes added to provide the pilot with a clear view, and a small steam-engine was often used to hoist anchors, work pumps, and load and unload cargo. Schooner-barges needed fewer crew members for their operation than did fully-rigged schooners, thus reducing costs.