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Photograph of SS Selah Chamberlain
Photograph by Unknown, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

SELAH CHAMBERLAIN (bulk carrier) Shipwreck

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

From the record

“SS Selah Chamberlain was a wooden-hulled Great Lakes freighter that sank with the loss of five lives in Lake Michigan in 1886, 6 miles (10 km) off the coast of Sheboygan, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, after being rammed by the steamer John Pridgeon Jr.. On January 7, 2019, the wreck of Selah Chamberlain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was given the reference number 100003288.”

Wikipedia article SS Selah Chamberlain, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 60 National Register listings published here for Sheboygan County · listed in 2019 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 2 mi. NE of Sheboygan Pt. in Lake Michigan, Sheboygan
  • When was it listed? January 2019
  • Category. site
  • Also known as. Great Lakes Shipwreck Sites of Wisconsin MPS
  • National Register reference number. 100003288 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

7 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of SELAH CHAMBERLAIN (bulk carrier) Shipwreck between 2018 and 2020, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Debris and open burning1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources3762
12 August 2018Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources3283
1 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources1713
18 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources1211
5 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources959
10 March 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources1044
30 October 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources3486

Every fire recorded in Sheboygan County

Storms near this property

37 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sheboygan, the town this property stands in, in 37 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 15 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 4 flood, 4 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1998Flash FloodSheboygan$40,000,000no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$40,000no account filed
August 1998LightningSheboygan$25,000no account filed
July 2010Flash FloodSheboygan$20,000A trained spotter reported 3 feet of water over South Business Drive between Riverdale Avenue and Stahl Road in the town of Wilson 5 miles south-southwest of Sheboygan. Another trained spotter reported street flooding on the south side of the city of Sheboygan near the intersection of Weeden Creek road and 10th Street. The flooding damaged the contents of flooded basements and washed out gravel shoulders of roads.
April 1997Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$10,000no account filed
June 1996FloodSheboygan$10,000no account filed
June 2024Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$6,000Scattered tree limbs down in Sheboygan including on a large van. A few photos provided.
August 2024Flash FloodSheboygan$5,000Street flooding on the south side of Sheboygan, including removed manhole covers from flooding sewers. Pictures of streets and yards flooded on the south side.
September 2005Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$5,000A barn door was blown off and items were blown out of the barn.
May 1993Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$5,000Winds from a severe thunderstorm lifted a 36 by 24 foot roof off from a warehouse in Sheboygan.
June 1996Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$4,000no account filed
April 2020Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$3,000Power poles broken and 3 inch diameter branches down.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$2,000A large tree snapped off and landing on power lines.
May 2020FloodSheboygan$2,000The Sheboygan River reached moderate flood stage, cresting at 11.07 feet the morning of May 18th. About 3 miles west of Sheboygan Airport, Woodland Road is flooded and closed between Rio Road and Willow Road due to the flooding of the Sheboygan River. Sections of Alpine Road and Meadowlark Road in the Sheboygan Falls area are flooded and closed. Floodwaters affect Kiwanis and Esslingen Parks in Sheboygan. Other roads and low lying areas are flooded in closed due to areal flooding from the several inches of rain that had fallen.
October 2002Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$2,000no account filed
September 2018Heavy RainSheboygan$1,000Street flooding in Sheboygan especially on and near 14th street from Geele Ave. to Indiana Ave.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$1,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$1,000no account filed
June 1997Thunderstorm WindSheboygan$1,000no account filed
July 1997LightningSheboygan$500no account filed
March 2026HailSheboygan-Pictured provided of one inch hail.
May 2007HailSheboygan-Large hail the size of pennys to quarters covered the ground white just northwest of the city limits of Sheboygan. No damage was noted. As the storm eventually moved through the city of Sheboygan it dumped heavy rains of 0.81 inches in about 45 minutes. Water accumulated on some roads to a depth of 3 to 5 inches.
September 2005Thunderstorm WindSheboygan-Measured by the Fox TV-6 school network site at North High School.
April 2018HailSheboygan-no account filed
March 2017HailSheboygan-no account filed
July 2014HailSheboygan-no account filed
May 2014HailSheboygan-no account filed
June 2006Funnel CloudSheboygan-no account filed
May 2004Heavy RainSheboygan-no account filed
November 2003Heavy RainSheboygan-no account filed
July 2003Heavy RainSheboygan-no account filed
September 2002Thunderstorm WindSheboygan-no account filed
April 2002HailSheboygan-no account filed
July 2002FloodSheboygan-no account filed
May 2001HailSheboygan-no account filed
August 2001FloodSheboygan-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindSheboygan-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sheboygan County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory2.8 miles2019
Thomas M. and Bridget Blackstock House2.8 miles1995
Eliza Prange House2.8 miles2015
Downtown Churches Historic District2.9 miles2010
Sheboygan County Courthouse2.9 miles1982
John Michael Kohler House2.9 miles1982

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 100003288 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Sheboygan CountyAll 60 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.