Moonlight Bay…Its Name Was Mud

The Kiehnau family was on a crawfish-catching mission in Moonlight Bay recently.

Poet Nancy Rafal, the force behind the Baileys Harbor mural and a resident of Moonlight Bay for more than 20 years, presented the history of that area at the July meeting of the Baileys Harbor Historical Society.

Almost everyone knows the story of the Toft family’s involvement with Moonlight Bay (or Mud Bay, as preservationist Emma Toft always called it). Her father, Tom, born in 1844, purchased the land that is now Toft Point and built an early camp for tourists. The site of the lodge where Emma and her mother cooked for guests is marked with a plaque. The acreage is now owned by the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and still abounds with the thimbleberries Emma loved, along with Columbine, Lady’s Slippers, Lake Iris, the rare Hine’s Emerald dragonflies, deer, turkeys, grey foxes and porcupines. Jens Jensen brought his classes from The Clearing there, as did Norbert Blei.

Less-known stories about Moonlight Bay include:

• In 1897, the Cream City Brick Company began buying extensive amounts of land in the area and clear-cut the virgin forest for wood to fuel their brick production. In order to sell the land after the forests were decimated, they advertised it as being extremely fertile. (Quite a fib:  the land is rocky, with a very thin layer of topsoil.)

• In 1860, the two Bues brothers, names lost in history, founded a fishing village in what is now called Bues Point. A hundred lumberjacks were hired to build houses along with a school, store and stone compound to keep livestock in and wild animals out. Very soon, strange, unexplained events began to occur. A woman who went to the well at night saw a full moon reflected in the dark water. There was no moon in the sky. Cows and the twin sons of one of the Bues men died unexpectedly. When, on a foggy night, a strange green light was seen over the bay and ghostly sounds were heard, it was the last straw. The next morning, the entire community bade the keeper at Cana Island Lighthouse goodbye and left forever.

• Another incident involved loggers James Cady and A. Peterson, who heard sleigh bells as they worked in the woods. Soon a team appeared, pulling a sleigh driven by a man with a hat pulled far down over his face. He yelled three times at the local men in a strange language. Soon, the team raced by, headed in the opposite direction. They left no tracks in the snow, and the driver was never found.

In its early days, the area was always called Mud Bay. In 1914, two years after the song, “Moonlight Bay,” was published, the Advocate began referring to it as Moonlight Bay. Some residents still use both names.

Phoebe Erickson, who grew up in the area, illustrated the famous children’s book, Black Beauty, as well as an edition of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, and was the author/illustrator of children’s books of her own, including Black Penny, about her childhood pony.

Judge Henry Graass of Green Bay owned land along Stone Mill Road, where he built a camp for Boy Scouts. When he brought his adult friends to the camp to hunt, the local paper always referred to its location as Mud Bay. When his wife, Cora, brought friends, the location was identified as the more genteel Moonlight Bay.

Reiboldt’s Creek, named for early resident August Reiboldt, flows through the area and empties into Moonlight Bay. Its mouth is a major spawning ground for whitefish and salmon.

In 1969, John Brogan, who had developed land on Glidden Drive, platted 61 lots, some with frontage on Moonlight Bay. It continues to be a close community today, with activities in the clubhouse Brogan built.