Rudderly Ridiculous: DNR Takes Jacksonport Man to Court

Mild-mannered chemistry professor C. Frank Shaw III, a part-time resident of Jacksonport, is at the center of a bureaucratic nightmare worthy of Kafka.

While someone has not been telling lies about Mr. S, they certainly have nailed him as the kingpin of an alleged conspiracy that took place in Jacksonport last Maifest.

What is not in dispute is that on May 24, 2014, an old wooden rudder was found imbedded in the sand at Lakeside Town Beach in Jacksonport during Maifest, which is also Memorial Day weekend, arguably Jacksonport’s busiest weekend and unofficial opening weekend of the busy season for Door County.

A group of citizens, many of them members of the Jacksonport Historical Society (JHS), thought the rudder should be protected from theft. They arranged to very carefully remove the imbedded rudder from the sand with a front loader manned by then-Town Chairman Alvin Birnschein. As it was getting late, everyone decided to store it at the home of the closest member of the JHS, which just happened to be Professor Shaw, who since 1992 has owned a cottage just up the road from the park on County V, across from the fire station/town hall.

“Somebody said, ‘Well, your house is pretty close. Can we leave it there for a while?’” Shaw said.

Eleven days later, on June 4, Shaw is in his pajamas and armed DNR personnel are at his door to retrieve the rudder. Wisconsin Historical Society scuba divers then placed the rudder in water off the shore.

And that was that.

Or so Shaw thought, until Feb. 14, 2015, when he was issued a citation from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources “for the removal of a rudder from a shipwreck from the lakebed of Lake Michigan…”

Shaw was told he could resolve the issue either by sending in a check for $452.50, appearing in court at 9 am on April 20, or, barring those options, facing the full weight of bureaucracy scorned – revocation of DNR privileges for up to three years, driver’s license revocation for up to five years, and “an unspecified amount of time in Door County Jail.”

Shaw has decided to fight the citation.

“I really think there’s a principle here, that the society was acting in good faith,” he said from his other home in Bloomington, Ind. “It was the town chairman and the officers of the historical society who live there who didn’t think that we were violating the law or desecrating the historic site.”

His defense?

There were no hidden motives and the sole concern was protecting the rudder because of its historical value. And, if anything, he was a mere minion in the removal of the rudder on that fateful Maifest day, but certainly not the kingpin.

“Why are the folks who arranged and carried out the removal not also being fined?” he asks in a 10-point defense statement.

“I am not advocating that more fines be imposed,” he continues in the statement, “as all of us acted with good intentions of protecting an important historical artifact.”

And that’s the thing here. It does seem more as if the powers that be are trying to set an example for anyone who might think of moving a historic artifact in the future. Shaw just happened to be caught holding the rudder for this particular example.

Shaw thought he was the first one to spot the piece of aged wood embedded in the shore sand last year. It immediately registered to his mind as a piece of a boat, but he initially thought it was a bow hatch. Since it was Maifest with people everywhere, he walked over to the Jacksonport Historical Society booth and told them about the find, at which point he learned he was not the first to spot or report it.

Jacksonport’s Lakeside Beach is historically significant for the two 19th century “lumber hookers” – the Perry Hannah and the Celia – that were abandoned after being damaged by storms off the long-gone Reynolds Pier. Because of that, the park is part of Wisconsin’s Maritime Trails. A marker at the park is accompanied by an anchor and capstan from the old Reynolds Pier.

Because of all these things, Shaw and the other members of the historical society and concerned town members worried that during this busiest of weekends, someone could easily steal this piece of Wisconsin maritime history. So they “conspired” to move it for safekeeping and Shaw was literally left holding the rudder.

Shaw and his supporters will be in court for his initial appearance at 9 am Monday, April 20.

“I just can’t believe that the DA is interested in fining somebody over this,” Shaw said.

A call to District Attorney Ray Pelrine’s office was deflected to DNR Conservation Warden Michael Neal, who issued the citation.

“The law is very clear that you cannot remove or disturb anything,” Neal said.

Neal pointed out that shortly after the rudder incident last year, a giant pipe wrench that had been used on the boilers of the North Bay shipwreck Frank O’Connor that had gone missing years before suddenly reappeared.

“When someone gets cited or charged, it acts as a deterrent for others,” Neal said.