The wooden three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons, built in 1868 in Milwaukee by Allen McClelland and Company, spent her career hauling lumber, wood products, and other forest goods from isolated Lake Michigan towns to the markets of Milwaukee and Chicago. On November 22, 1912, she left Thompson, Michigan, carrying her annual cargo of Christmas pines and firs under the shared command of Herman Scheunemann and Charles Nelson, each a one-eighth owner. Scheunemann planned to sell the trees in Chicago directly from the vessel’s deck, as he had done for 20 years. On the second day of the voyage, the schooner met a northwest gale and was seen flying a distress flag about 3:00 p.m. as she passed the Kewaunee Life-Saving Station. A rescue crew from Two Rivers set out to help, but after rounding Two Rivers Point, now Rawley Point, they could no longer find the vessel. She sank on November 23, 1912, with 16 lives lost, and later became fondly remembered as the Christmas Tree Ship. About 12 miles northeast of this spot, in 165 feet of water, her wreck lies in Lake Michigan. For many years afterward, Christmas trees from the lost ship washed up along the beach. Divers discovered the wreck in 1971, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.