Bay View: Town of Lake Captains (Vol. 3)

From 1878-1968, over 70 lake captains called Bay View, Wisconsin their home. Surrounded on three sides by water (the Kinnickinnic River, the Port of Milwaukee, and Lake Michigan), Bay View has a stunning and remarkable maritime history. Yet this history has hardly been reported – until now.

This 650-page book, being released in individual Volumes, is the culmination of 10 years of work. Just the research and source documentation totals 60 pages and is in 9-point font, single-spaced. Nearly all of it would not have been possible without the online digital revolution that allowed for keyword searching, impossible just ten years ago.

Bay View’s 71 lake captains lived in 117 different homes and captained 195 different ships while they lived here. They captained everything from fishing boats to tugboats, to two and three-masted schooners, to the earliest steamships to the huge cargo ships we see on the lakes today. Their sailing adventures on the Lakes easily match those of the great sea captains of the world’s oceans.