Frederick and Margretha Werner Barn

Frederick and Margretha Werner Barn is a surviving farm building in Port Oneida, with the surrounding field and Bay View Hiking Trail carrying much of the story. It sits at the end of Miller Road, which meets Port Oneida Road just north of M-22. This is a short stop for the old farm setting: walk the field edge, then continue west on the trail for a bluff view of Lake Michigan through the trees. For a photo, step back along the field edge so the barn sits in its landscape. The wider Bay View trail system includes an easy 2.4-mile Farm Loop through more farms and fields, past a historic schoolhouse to Lookout Point.

Frederick and Margretha Werner arrived from Germany in 1855 and claimed a 204-acre parcel. Their farm dates to the late 1850s or early 1860s and became the oldest maintained farm in the Port Oneida Historical District. About 15 years after they built their farmstead, neighbor Thomas Kelderhouse challenged the property line. The Werners had to dismantle their home and farm and move a quarter mile south to this location.

By 1885, the Werners' son Richard and daughter-in-law Katie were farming here. After Richard died in 1890, Katie married Benjamin Holland, who took over; he was remembered for having remarkably straight corn rows. In 1891, Frederick and Margretha gave the northern 122 acres to their daughter Mattie and son-in-law John Miller. Farming stopped around 1930 because the crops weren't adequate, and great-grandson Franklin Basch bought the farm in 1943.

The trail west reaches the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan through the trees. The Werners established a family cemetery on that bluff; it is believed to include five children who died during the farm's early years, Frederick and Margretha, and other family members.