Sight · Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
An 1890s barn with the machinery behind Port Oneida’s farm history.
Overview
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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 place
Miller Road: The Werner Farm's Forced Move“You're approaching Miller Road, the access to the Werner Barn in Port Oneida. The barn sits at the road's end, and I'd make this a short detour if the area's farm history interests you.”
Plays as you drive up to John & May Burfiend 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
John & May Burfiend Barn is a four-bay English-style ground barn at Port Oneida and Miller roads, in Sleeping Bear Dunes’ historic farming district. It’s a short roadside stop for a closer look at the buildings behind the area’s farm history. Most Port Oneida farmsteads are close to the road and take little walking; this barn’s hours, parking, and current interior access aren’t specified.
The barn dates to the 1890s. Its wooden threshing floor was used to beat wheat and oats free of their stalks, and the structure contains an early mechanized thresher along with an overhead track and hayfork for moving loose hay. The four-bay layout let a wagon pass through one side and out the other. Treat the interior details as history rather than guaranteed exhibits: public entry isn’t confirmed.
Port Oneida’s name comes from the steamship Oneida. In 1861, Carsten Burfiend sold land to Thomas Kelderhouse for one dollar on the condition that Kelderhouse build a dock; the ship’s first visit to that dock gave the community its name. Farms in this area worked sandy glacial soil, growing potatoes as a cash crop and grain for small dairy herds.
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 · 0.7 mi awayA 2.4-mile farm loop to a schoolhouse and Lake Michigan view.
ModerateBay View Ridge Loop4 mi · 2.5 hr · 0.7 mi awayLake views, Port Oneida farm history, and one honest uphill pull.
ModeratePyramid Point Trail2.7 mi · 1.8 hr · 1.5 mi awayA short climb, then a bluff view across the Manitou Islands.
EasyGood Harbor Bay Trail2.8 mi · 1.5 hr · 4 mi awayDune grass gives way to quiet woods, wetlands and Lake Michigan access
Sight · 0.1 mi awayPort Oneida SchoolA one-room school, bell tower, hand pump and crescent-moon privy.
Sight · 0.2 mi awayWilliam & Charlotte Kelderhouse FarmA farmhouse that held Port Oneida's store, post office and phone exchange.
Visitor center · 0.3 mi awayPort Oneida Farms Heritage CenterA 1918 farmhouse with Port Oneida's first indoor plumbing.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayDechow FarmPort Oneida farm history, told through a whole cluster of buildings.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayFrederick and Margretha Werner BarnA family farm moved south after a boundary dispute.
Sight · 0.5 mi awayFred & Grace Baker Pig BarnOld walnut timbers carry an older Port Oneida story into this barn.
Sight · 0.8 mi awayCarsten & Elizabeth Burfiend FarmPort Oneida’s first non-Native homestead, still legible across the road.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayMartin & Allay Basch FarmA farm stop with ornate gables and a sunburst porch detail.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.
