Pete & Jennie Burfiend Farm

Pete & Jennie Burfiend Farm is a Port Oneida farmstead with a surviving farmhouse and outbuildings. It sits on the west side of Basch Road just north of M-22; the farmhouse dates to the 1890s, and the outbuildings to about 1900. It suits a slow heritage drive more than a long visit, but public information doesn't establish whether visitors may enter the grounds or house, so don't plan on an interior tour.

Joseph Brunson settled this site in the 1860s. Peter and Jennie Burfiend bought 80 acres in 1882, then the rest in 1885. Their first home was a log cabin, where their daughter Laura was born. Martin Basch built the surviving farmhouse for them in the 1890s; the cabin was dismantled in the 1960s, and a barn about 100 yards north came down in 1978.

Peter was the son of Carsten Burfiend and grew up at his father's farm about a mile and a half northwest. He and Jennie left this farm in 1891 to take over that property, so it's easy to confuse the two sites. A family recollection says Jennie discouraged Peter from fishing after his brother drowned; Peter was also known for skilled broad-ax and adze work that he sometimes traded with neighbors.

The farm later passed through Olsen, Miller, and Basch families before its sale to the park in 1977. The Basches kept using it for 25 more years.