A former cherry orchard just outside Sister Bay is the latest site in Door County placed on the State Register of Historic Places.
The observation tower at the site of the former Hedeen Orchard just outside Sister Bay is one of 11 buildings and related structures on the property that recently was placed on Wisconsin’s State Register of Historic Places.
The Wisconsin Historical Society announced Aug. 27 it listed the Hedeen Orchard, on Hill Road in the town of Liberty Grove, on the historic places register. The historical society said in a news release the site, now a private residence, is representative of the Door County “cherry boom” of the 20th century, noting its 40 acres of former orchard land and 11 still-standing buildings and resources that relate to its historic function as a cherry orchard that used migrant labor.
According to the historical society, Frithiof and Emma Hedeen established Hedeen Orchard on the site of a former small-scale dairy farm in 1922 and then planted cherry trees, eventually transforming the property into a mid-sized commercial cherry orchard during the peak years of the cherry industry in Door County. The orchard became productive in the late 1920s, when the family advertised for pickers, and flourished into the 1960s.
In response to a shortage of local and in-state agricultural workers during and immediately after World War II, the orchard relied on Mexican and Tejano migrant workers to pick its cherries for three to six weeks each summer. The historical society’s listing says from 1945 to 1963, about 700 Door County growers tended more than 1 million cherry trees with a combined production of up to 50 million pounds of cherries each season, making Door County the third largest producer of tart red cherries in the U.S., as the Peninsula’s cherry industry became dependent on the labor provided by these migrant families.
Among the historic resources on the site are wood-frame buildings that housed migrant workers each summer, including a small cottage that housed up to four families and a barn that was converted for use as additional migrant housing. Utilitarian structures that remain on site include a gas pump, observation tower, and storage and water supply sheds. Graffiti created by Tejano migrant workers in the mid-20th century remains on the interior walls of three buildings, along with bunk beds, ladders, signs and pails.
The cherry pickers’ cottage at the site of the former Hedeen Orchard just outside Sister Bay is one of 11 buildings and related structures on the property that recently was placed on Wisconsin’s State Register of Historic Places.
Because the site is a private residence, the historical society asks people to respect the privacy of the property owners.
For more information on Hedeen Orchard, visit its historic register listing at wisconsinhistory.org/Records/NationalRegister/NR2837. For more on the Wisconsin Historical Society and its State and National Register programs, visit wisconsinhistory.org.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Former Door County cherry orchard is named a Wisconsin historic place