Old Forestville Dam and Gristmill Put Bread on the Table for 42 Years

In the late 1800s, northeastern Wisconsin farmers were wheat raisers. The grain was ground into flour for their personal use, and any extra provided income. In 1877, there was no grist mill in southern Door County, and John Fetzer, who had settled in the area after the Civil War, saw an opportunity to add this business to the sawmills he already operated with his partner, G. W. Youngs, in Jacksonport, Egg Harbor and Horseshoe Bay.

Millwright Charles Cofrin was hired to build the three-story mill beside what was then known as the Wolf (later Ahnapee) River in Forestville, and Fetzer and Youngs arranged for the construction of a 1,000-foot dam of heavy timbers, rock and earth.

George Poh and Constant Vanderveld are the two spearfishers in this 1918 photo of the old Forestville Dam.

The mill opened for business on Jan. 14, 1878. One of the first employees was 15-year-old John Poh from Manitowoc, who earned a dollar a day. Wheat production flourished, and the mill was expanded in the early 1880s. Five bushels of wheat produced a barrel of flour, with about 100 pounds of byproduct to feed farm animals.

Farmers came from as far north as Egg Harbor. The mill ran day and night, seven days a week, and it was not unusual to see farmers asleep on bags of grain as they waited their turn. The mill could produce 75 barrels of flour a day, and state law required that the mill be paid a “toll” of one-eighth of the flour ground.

In December 1883, a 20-foot section of the dam washed away, slowing the mill’s production until it could be repaired the next spring. Four years later, wood-fueled steam power was added to keep the millwheels turning when the river was low.

In 1886, Poh was named head miller, and in 1897 he bought half interest in the mill. There were six other employees, including Fred Krueger, who hauled the flour to Sturgeon Bay, 15 barrels at a time. Fetzer died in 1900, and the future of the business was in doubt when it was discovered that the mill was heavily mortgaged to the Grand Lodge of the Order of Sons of Herman. Fetzer’s widow deeded the mill to the lodge, which then sold it to Poh.

In March 1920, both wooden dam gates washed out. Poh, who had devoted his entire life to the mill, had kept it running until then, although wheat production had given way to dairying. A newspaper had quoted him as saying disgustingly, “There is no grist to grind. I’m grinding feed for cattle and hogs.” He died on May 8, 1925.

In 1934, town board chairman H. J. Teske helped to get a new concrete dam, designed by Mark Schlise, constructed by the Works Progress Administration. A bottle of Door County wine was used to christen it as the Poh Community Dam and Lake in a ceremony attended by 7,500 people. In 1949, John Poh, the son of the long-time miller, sold the family property to the town of Forestville for $6,000.

In May 1960, the river, swollen by a week of rain, broke through the earth-and-rock-filled dike in the dam, draining the lake and flooding bottomlands downstream. Three years later, the town gave the park and dam structure to the Door County Board to develop a park. The name Poh Community Dam was lost, and the dam became known as the Forestville Dam.

The historic mill, nearly a century old, burned in 1975. In 1982, the dam spillways were replaced by the Wisconsin DNR. Water flows over the diamond-shaped spillways where it pools at the bottom and then overflows through some teeth into the river channel.

The new, concrete Forestville Dam, originally known as the Poh Community Dam, was constructed in 1934 and christened with a bottle of Door County wine.

Brothers Ed and Hans Feld, ages 89 and 79, grew up on a farm near Forestville in the early years of the 20th century. Ed remembers the big red mill with its huge waterwheel and the stones that ground flour. It closed about the time he was born, but he recalls being inside “where I didn’t belong,” before it collapsed. He was so young then that it’s understandable that the mill stones he remembers as being 10 feet across were really only four feet wide.

He remembers that during his growing-up years, between the dam washout in 1920 and the construction of the new dam in 1934, there was just a remnant of the dam, including a dike that ran along 40 or so acres, east to west. Ed recalls that Pastor Rudolph Stuth and a Mr. Perry, a prominent citizen who ran the feed mill in Maplewood, were involved with the effort to build the 1934 dam. Farmers used horses to clear 30 or 40 acres of swamp, piling up brush and stumps and burning them while Pastor Stuth made coffee “to keep them happy.” It was Stuth, Ed remembers, who made an impressive speech at the dedication of the new dam.

Younger brother Hans was just five when the new dam was dedicated. He remembers an old gentleman named Zeke Poh who took care of it and made sure the water level was right. His house, a wooden dock and a two-sided bath-house were located where the park is now. The diving board was on the site of the current dam. “The pond was our youth center,” Hans says. “Man, did we have ice skating parties there. Of course, the farm kids couldn’t go often because we had chores to do.

“The land on the east side of the river, thick with cedar trees, was owned by the Wiese family, and that’s where St. Peters Lutheran Church had its picnics. It was great fun until the cows came through on their way to be milked. Those were memorable times.

“North of the dam, Otto Haasch built a stone bridge so he could take horses and machinery across the river to farm for relatives living on the west side. For some reason, we kids always called it Jim’s 99 Bridge. That’s as far north as we ever skated.”

Hans also remembers a tavern near the dam owned by Elmer Delforge that burned in the late 1930s. It was frequented by a lot of farmers, but the Feld boys’ dad seldom had an extra nickel for a beer or a dime for a shot of whiskey.

Forestville Dam Park is located on approximately 79 acres of land at 475 Mill Road in Forestville. The Ahnapee Trail runs through the park, which offers restrooms, picnic tables and an opportunity to watch kayakers and fishermen enjoying the lake. A plaque detailing the history of the dam and gristmill was erected by the Door County Historical Society in 2008.

Information for this story came from old newspaper clippings and other records provided by Keith Kasbohm at the DC Parks Department, from conversations with Hans and Ed Feld and from the plaque at the dam site (several points of which did not agree with old clippings).