This house was built in 1868 by Cyrus and Kitty Hart; it is believed to be one of the first brick homes in the county with the bricks being shipped to Oconto from DePere. The building passed through several owners before becoming the home of George and Fanny Beyer in 1881. The Beyers remodeled it into a Queen Anne style home adding a wrap-around porch, three-story tower room and entry, a south bay addition, and new windows, many of which included leaded glass. During the 1970s, the Oconto Co. Historical Society undertook a complete interior restoration of the home to the 1890s. Now the building is open to the public as a fine example of how the small town wealthy lived. 

O.C.H #1.-The Beyer Home Museum

O.C.H #1:Oconto-The Beyer Home Museum

Arndt's Sawmill was built in the town of Pensaukee in 1827, Wisconsin's first. This easy two-part multi-cache will take you to the location of the site although all the buildings are long gone. A dike on the north side of the river is the last remaining remnant of the sawmill. The container is hidden nearby. 

O.C.H #14 Wisconsin's First Sawmill

This multi-cache/field solve puzzle takes the cacher on a tour of the historic city of Oconto, starting at the Copper Culture State Park where human remains have been found that date back over 7000 years. It proceeds past the Father Claude Allouez marker, the site of the first Catholic mission in Wisconsin; the First Christian Science Church, founded by Mary Baker Eddy; and the Perrot monument, which marks the event of his settling a native American indian dispute. The waypoints also take the cacher past 19th century lumber baron homes of the historic Main Street district.   

O.C.H #2.-It's For The Birds

O.C.H #2: Oconto-It's For The Birds

Charles Werrebroeck immigrated to the Oconto area from Belgium in 1911. Charles built the home, the only example of this style of old-world architecture in the Oconto area, in 1924 using the methods he had been taught in Belgium, where he learned his trade of masonry.
The house is now part of the Copper Culture State Park which was formed after 1952 when a 13-year old Oconto boy discovered the bones of the Archaic Copper Culture people. The 48-acre park is an important archaeological site featuring some of the United State's oldest Native American Indian burial grounds estimated to be as much as 7,500 years old. 
The Werrebroeck museum house displays detailed photographs of the original 1952 archaeological dig at the burial ground, some maps, and replicas of items from the 7,500 year old artifact collection. 

O.C.H #3.-The Werrebroeck House

O.C.H #3: Oconto-The Werrebroeck House

The museum is in an old church built in 1885 and includes many antiques and memorobilia on logging, farming, and general life of the times from recent vintage to 100+ years ago. Behind the museum is a log cabin moved to the site from a nearby farm. It was built by Bohemian immigrants in the late 1800's and is nicely furnished with furniture and houseware of that era. 

O.C.H. #10: Lena Historical Museum

The Smith House is a Victorian manor housing memorobilia of the Gillette Area Historical Society. The original house was built on this location by Rodney Gillette, considered to be the founder of the town of Gillett, in 1868.  

O.C.H. #11 - Gillett Historical Museum

The Bedora Mound Group on the north shore of White Potato Lake includes several indian burial or ceremonial mounds of different shapes. 

O.C.H. #12-Indian Mounds of White Potato Lake

Long ago native Americans shaped young saplings to point out directions on remote wilderness trails. Such a tree still exists in the town of Oak Orchard, although it is on private property and is not viewable along the trail to the cache site in the Pensaukee Wildlife Area. Trails in the area were once part of the Fort Howard to Menominee Road in the 1800's. 

O.C.H. #13: The Trail Marker Tree

The town of Chase has restored this old barn made completely of field stones from the surrounding area. Built by the Krause family at the beginning of the last century, it is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places because it is one of the last of its kind in the country and a unique historical attraction. The field-solve puzzle will lead you to the nearby cache. 

O.C.H. #15: Chase-The Stone Barn

Established by Chester Schwedler, the Stanley Toy Company made cast-metal horse-drawn carriages and bunny toy carts but fire destroyed the building after a few short years and production ended. The toys are now highly collectible. The cache is a field-solve puzzle with information found at the site. 


O.C.H. #16 - The Stanley Toy Company

During the 1800's, Scandanavian fishing villages grew up along Green Bay. This one featured here was Norwegian but was destroyed in the Great Peshtigo Fire. 

O.C.H. #17 - Thomaston Fishing Settlement

Located near the town of Lakewood, this camp/museum has recently been renovated. It may be the oldest standing 1800's logging camp still in existance. When you arrive at ground zero, you will be surprised how the setting has changed...the past mixing with the present. 

O.C.H. #4 - The Holt and Balcom Logging Camp

Gustavus Grosse was a pioneer settler and lumbermill owner in Little Suamico. He purchased this site for the family cemetery on the bank of a river and is buried here with his wife Caroline. It remains to this day a family cemetery. 

O.C.H. #5: WSQ Grosse Family Cemetery (offset)

O.C.H.#5: WSQ Grosse Family Cemetery (offset)

The lumber barons of the 1800's clear cut much of the virgin white pine in Wisconsin, but small pockets of them still exist. The Cathedral of Pines near Lakewood is one. It was never cut by the Holt Lumber Co. and had been preserved by the family. Don Holt tells how his mother arrived at the name by holding Sunday School classes there. 

O.C.H. #6-The Cathedral of Pines

O.C.H. #6: Lakewood-The Cathedral of Pines

The Volks traveled to the Oconto Falls area in the mid-1800's and became the first permanent settlers. They built a sawmill at the falls but eventually had to dynamite the falls because too many logs were being destroyed going over them. The Volk Cemetery has many interesting and unique markers commemorating their family's history. 

O.C.H. #8 - WSQ Volk Family Cemetery

In 1846, the Thomas Lindsey family became the first permanent settlers of Oconto. Your visit will take you to this site where you will find grave markers and a memorial to them. Solving the puzzle there will lead you to an artificial island created by cutting through a point in the Oconto River to allow logs to flow freely during the lumbering era of the 1800's. 

O.C.H. #9-Lindsey Fields

The Farnsworth Public Library was completed in 1903 by architect Henry Foeller. Oconto lumberman George Farnsworth gifted $15,000 to its building, constructed in the Neoclassical Revival style. On an expansion completed in 1993 you'll find a beautiful and colorful mural. Find info in the mural to solve the coordinates for the cache.

O.C.H.#5: The Farnsworth Library

This 3 part multi-cache will bring the cacher to Stiles, a small Oconto Co. community off Highway 141, first established as a company town in the mid-1800's during the lumbering boom. Although little is left to reflect on those prosperous days, the area is a tourist mecca in northeastern Wisconsin. It offers fishing, boating, hiking, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, horseback riding, etc. 

O.C.H.#7: Stiles-The Old Iron Bridge

The caches on this list reflect information on Oconto County's history.
O.C.H. #1 - The Beyer Home Museum GC1CYKF
O.C.H. #2 - It's For The Birds GC1F79Z
O.C.H. #3 - The Werrebroeck House GC1QB78
O.C.H. #4 - The Holt and Balcom Logging Camp GC1TY81
O.C.H. #5-The Farnsworth Library GC8N7X1
O.C.H. #6 - The Cathedral of Pines GC1X4AZ
O.C.H. #7 - Stiles: The Old Iron Bridge GC222JG
O.C.H. #8 - WSQ Volk Family Cemetery GC1HEHD
O.C.H. #9 - Lindsey Fields GC24DB9
O.C.H. #10 - Lena Historical Museum GC2AZ71
O.C.H. #11 - Gillett Historical Museum GC2C6W0
O.C.H. #12 - Indian Mounds of White Potato Lake GC2VFWZ
O.C.H. #13 - The Trail Marker Tree GC4A0B0
O.C.H. #14 - Wisconsin's First Sawmill GC4A0C3
O.C.H. #15 - Chase: The Stone Barn GC1VRZM
O.C.H. #16 - The Stanley Toy Company GC59BCR
O.C.H. #17 - Thomaston Fishing Settlement


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Oconto County HistoryPublic