Sight · Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Old walnut timbers carry an older Port Oneida story into this barn.
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
Burfiend Farm: Look Across the Road“The Carsten and Elizabeth Burfiend Farm is ahead, a stop for anyone interested in how this lakeshore once worked.”
Plays on the road 0.3 mi from Fred & Grace Baker Pig Barn in the Parkwolf Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
The Fred & Grace Baker Pig Barn is a small gambrel-roofed barn in a field about a mile north of M-22, several hundred feet east of Port Oneida Road. It makes most sense as a brief stop if you enjoy old farm buildings and the Port Oneida story. The public approach, parking, and interior access aren't documented, so don't assume the field is an open route to the barn or that you can go inside.
Fred Baker and his son-in-law Jack Barratt built the barn in the late 1940s using black-walnut timbers from the former Kelderhouse residence at Port Oneida's original townsite. A large lilac clump nearby marks where that house stood. Barratt also recalled Buffalo chalk marks on the reused beams and scraps of 1860s newspapers inside; those details come from his recollection, rather than an independent date on the materials.
Port Oneida first grew around a dock and sawmill in the 1860s. As the woods were cut and demand for cordwood fell, farming became more important to the settlement. The pig barn belongs to that later chapter, while the walnut inside it had already served an older Port Oneida home.
Wildlife
27 sightingsPiping PloverMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
70 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
56 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
68 sightingsSandhill CraneMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
58 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
31 sightingsLoonMost seen around 5 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Sleeping Bear Dunes. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyBay View Farm Loop2.4 mi · 1.5 hr · 1.1 mi awayA 2.4-mile farm loop to a schoolhouse and Lake Michigan view.
ModerateBay View Ridge Loop4 mi · 2.5 hr · 1.1 mi awayLake views, Port Oneida farm history, and one honest uphill pull.
ModeratePyramid Point Trail2.7 mi · 1.8 hr · 1.1 mi awayA short climb, then a bluff view across the Manitou Islands.
EasyGood Harbor Bay Trail2.8 mi · 1.5 hr · 4.1 mi awayDune grass gives way to quiet woods, wetlands and Lake Michigan access
Sight · 0.3 mi awayCarsten & Elizabeth Burfiend FarmPort Oneida’s first non-Native homestead, still legible across the road.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayJohn & May Burfiend BarnAn 1890s barn with the machinery behind Port Oneida’s farm history.
Sight · 0.6 mi awayFrederick and Margretha Werner BarnA family farm moved south after a boundary dispute.
Sight · 0.6 mi awayPort Oneida SchoolA one-room school, bell tower, hand pump and crescent-moon privy.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayWilliam & Charlotte Kelderhouse FarmA farmhouse that held Port Oneida's store, post office and phone exchange.
Beach · 0.7 mi awayNo Name Road BeachSoft Lake Michigan sand, reached by a long, steep staircase.
Visitor center · 0.8 mi awayPort Oneida Farms Heritage CenterA 1918 farmhouse with Port Oneida's first indoor plumbing.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayDechow FarmPort Oneida farm history, told through a whole cluster of buildings.Parkwolf’s Sleeping Bear Dunes ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
