Dechow Farm

Dechow Farm is a historic Port Oneida dairy farmstead near M-22 and Port Oneida Road. The stop is a group of surviving buildings: the farmhouse, barn and milkhouse, concrete silo, granary, corn crib, chicken coops and a small sugar shack. It’s a good short stop if you like seeing how an old farm was actually put together.

Regular visiting hours and building access aren’t documented, so don’t plan around going inside unless access is confirmed locally.

Frederick and Frederike Dechow bought the farm and built a log cabin in 1857. Their sons John and Charles built the barn around 1890; a grandson, Fred, built the later house around 1910. The buildings tell the story of a family farm growing and changing over several generations.

The concrete silo and milking parlor show the farm adapting to newer dairy methods by the late 1940s. A large granary and small corn crib fit the crops people could grow this far north: corn was limited, while wheat, rye, oats, potatoes and hay were common. Two chicken coops served different purposes, one for market fryers and one for laying hens.

A row of sugar maples led to a sugar shack built around 1944. The family made roughly 20 gallons of syrup a year, and during World War II sugar rationing it sweetened much of the household food. It’s a small building with a surprisingly useful story.

The Dechows raised apples and a small dairy herd, then sold milk, cream and eggs to local resorts. A local history records an orchard of 26 trees on an acre and notes the farm was among the first in Port Oneida with electricity and plumbing. The farm’s story reaches beyond the family’s household to the visitors and neighbors around it.