Martin & Allay Basch Farm

Martin & Allay Basch Farm is a historic farmstead on Baker Road in Port Oneida, centered on a two-story clapboard farmhouse and its outbuildings. It’s a small stop for the house’s decorative carpentry if you’re exploring the district’s old farms. Public interior access isn’t documented, so plan to view the farmstead from outside.

The farmhouse has an irregular plan, a gable roof with smaller cross-gables, and ornate woodwork around its windows and gable ends. The porch gable carries a sunburst pattern, and fieldstone forms the porch foundation and pillars. For a photo, frame the whole house first, then move in on the sunburst and window trim.

Martin and Allay Basch arrived on North Manitou Island in 1868. Martin had been a German soldier and political prisoner; he later worked as a blacksmith and carpenter, helping build farms and churches around Port Oneida, Good Harbor, and Arcadia. The farmhouse’s careful trim gives that carpentry story something concrete to look for.

The Baschs grew corn, beans, and potatoes. Potatoes were their cash crop, sold at Cedar, while surplus corn and wheat went to market at Crystal River. They kept about 50 beef cattle, dairy cattle for their own use, and at one time 300 to 400 turkeys. Farming here ended around 1969.