Saving Port’s fishing history

The days of commercial fishing in Port Washington officially ended when the Linda E. went down in December 1998, but they have not been forgotten.

Nor will they, thanks to the efforts of a diverse collection of community groups, a business and families — including members of two of Port’s oldest fishing families, the Smiths and the Ewigs.

The commercial fishing memorial in Rotary Park, which includes a statue of a fisherman with a sturgeon slung over his back and a series of eight panels that tell the story of commercial fishing in the city, is getting a facelift.

The move was prompted by the fact that the wording on the signboards has deteriorated to the point they are no longer legible, Dawn St. George, executive director of the Port Washington Historical Society, said.

Maintaining the memorial is vital, she said, because commercial fishing defined Port Washington through much of its history.

It’s what the community was built on — hardworking men who plied the waters of Lake Michigan from early morning to the night harvesting the fish that fed people near and far.

“I don’t want that to be forgotten,” Andrew Ewig, part of the sixth generation of the Ewig family that fished the lake beginning in the late 1800s and still operates Ewig Bros. market on Wisconsin Street, said.

“I have two young boys I’m raising in Port Washington, and I want them to understand their history and how we’re part of something bigger. Port Washington was built on this history.”

Grant Smith, whose family created the memorial more than 20 years ago, concurred, saying he felt compelled to get involved in the effort to refurbish the memorial because it’s an important reminder of the community’s roots.

“Obviously, I love the heritage and the history and the fact it pays tribute not only to our family but all the families,” he said.

The memorial, Smith noted, is located in the heart of what was the city’s commercial fishing hub for decades.

While the statue created by Fredonia artist Andy Schumann in the image made famous in the Smith Bros. logo remains in good shape, the signboards that tell the story of commercial fishing are not.

The signboards, which are illustrated, have titles that include “Those that fished,” “Of valor and sorrow,” “The art of commercial fishing,” “They had to go a fishin,” “A lakefront in transition,” “The Boats,” and “Fishermen and shorehands.”

They tell the story of fishing in Port, from the Native Americans who caught their food to commercial fishermen who made their living from the water until Dec. 11, 1998, when the Linda E., the last fishing tug to call Port its home, was lost with its three-man crew on board. The vessel had been run down by an integrated tug-barge as it was preparing to return home with 1,000 pounds of chubs. The boat disappeared on what appeared to be a perfect day, and it wasn’t found until a Navy minesweeper discovered it in June 2000.

The signboard’s panels are made of fiberglass, and over time the fiberglass breaks down and comes to the surface, St. George said.

“All you see are these threads,” she said. “It takes over the letters so they’re absolutely unreadable.”

Port Street Commissioner JD Hoile took one of the signs apart so they could get a closer look at them, St. George said, adding the project has been on the Society’s radar for almost a year.

“These signs were looking shabby for a while,” she said.

The project came to the forefront in spring when John Sigwart of the Greater Port Washington Kiwanis Club approached the Historical Society looking for a cause to help fund with proceeds from Venetian Fest, she said.

The memorial was a natural choice, St. George said, since it’s located in Rotary Park, where much of the festival was held.

When she stopped at Port Washington State Bank to set up an account for the project, the Schowalter family, who owns the bank, asked to be a part of it as well, St. George said.

And the inclusion of the Ewig and Smith families, who independently asked to be part of the project, is particularly striking given their family ties to commercial fishing in the community, she said.

St. George said the bigger challenge proved to be figuring out how to refurbish the memorial. It took time to track down the original manufacturer of the plaques, who no longer had the files for them — and who no longer make this type of sign.

The company sold its files to Hopewell Manufacturing in Waynesboro, Penn., she said, and while Hopewell no longer had the files for the commercial fishing memorial, it does still make that type of sign.

Some of the original signs have more text than is recommended today, so there was some thought given to editing them but ultimately it was decided to reproduce the original content “with a little more weatherproofing this time,” St. George said.

The Society is retyping the text to send to the company, she said, noting “We have the original text in hard copy.”

She said it will take at least six months to produce the new signs.

“The supply lines are still clogged and they just don’t have the raw material they need,” St. George said.

While a final price for the memorial isn’t known yet, St. George expects it will be about $300 for each of the eight signs — double that if they replace the frames and posts, something she said will probably be a 2025 project.

“It’s kind of time is of the essence for the signs themselves,” she said.

St. George said she hopes to have the new signs installed by March or April, in time for next summer’s tourism season.