Abandoned Towns
Quarry Lake at Harrington Beach State Park, still water reflecting a low ledge of limestone and a line of trees under a clear sky

Other mining and oil town · Mill, lumber and company town

Stonehaven

From 1901 to 1925 a stone company quarried dolomite here and housed its immigrant workers in a company town. The pit is now a 26-acre lake in a state park, and some foundations of the town survive in the park.

43°29′32″N 87°48′03″W · ≈620 ft

Photo: Jules Verne Times Two, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

State park, fee

Harrington Beach State Park is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. year-round, per the Wisconsin DNR. A vehicle admission sticker is required: $13 a day or $28 a year for Wisconsin plates and $16 a day or $50 a year for out-of-state plates, at rates effective August 19, 2025. Signs on the Quarry Lake trail warn of steep cliffs and ask hikers to stay on the trail (seen in a video filmed April 12, 2026). Drones are banned in Wisconsin state parks except where posted.

Overview

A quarry town on the lake shore

Limestone ledges on the far side of Quarry Lake, the old quarry pit, August 2022
Limestone ledges on the far side of Quarry Lake, the old quarry pit, August 2022 · Photo: Jules Verne Times Two, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

In the 1890s a Milwaukee businessman, David Whittaker, opened a dolomite quarry on the Lake Michigan shore in the Town of Belgium. His Northwestern Stone Company failed, and in 1901 the Lake Shore Stone Company bought the quarry and built a company town beside it. They called it Stonehaven. Most of the workers were immigrants from Luxembourg, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Families lived in cottages 15 by 24 feet and single men in two dormitories, and workers could spend company tokens at the company store.

Up to 150 men worked the pit each day. A park sign describes the noise: limestone blasted loose, hauled in steel cars by mules and pulled by cable up inclined tramways to a crusher, which another sign says could handle 1,500 yards a day. The crushed stone went out from a pier that ran 700 feet into the lake, bound for road projects. The pit grew to 25 acres.

In the 1920s road builders turned from crushed stone to gravel. In 1925 the company dissolved and the quarry closed. Some cottages were moved three miles west to the village of Belgium, and the quarry filled with water. The DNR began buying the land in 1968, and today it is Harrington Beach State Park, where the old pit is Quarry Lake.

Then and now

Stonehaven from the air, 1937 and 2022

The quarry closed in 1925, and some of the cottages were moved to Belgium. On August 9, 1937, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed the site: the pit already full of water, cleared ground and tracks between it and the shore, a line running out into Lake Michigan where the 700-foot pier stood, and farm fields west of Sauk Trail Road.

From 1968 the DNR bought the land for Harrington Beach State Park. The second photograph, from the federal farm survey of June 23, 2022, shows the pit as Quarry Lake, most of the ground around it grown up in woods, and the park's roads and campground on the old fields west of the road.

Drag the line across the photo, or use the arrow keys.
2022 aerial photograph: Quarry Lake in woods near the shore, with the park's roads and campground on the fields west of the roadQuarry LakeWhere the pier stoodPark lawn, paths and treesSauk Trail RoadPark campground2022
1937 aerial photograph: the flooded quarry pit with cleared ground and tracks toward the shore, the line of the pier in Lake Michigan, and farm fields west of the roadQuarry pit, floodedLine of the pierCleared ground and tracksSauk Trail RoadFarm fields1937
1937 aerial photograph: the flooded quarry pit with cleared ground and tracks toward the shore, the line of the pier in Lake Michigan, and farm fields west of the roadQuarry pit, floodedLine of the pierCleared ground and tracksSauk Trail RoadFarm fields1937
1937. The flooded quarry pit with cleared ground and tracks toward the shore, the line of the pier in Lake Michigan, and farm fields west of the road.
2022 aerial photograph: Quarry Lake in woods near the shore, with the park's roads and campground on the fields west of the roadQuarry LakeWhere the pier stoodPark lawn, paths and treesSauk Trail RoadPark campground2022
2022. Quarry Lake in woods near the shore, with the park's roads and campground on the fields west of the road.

1937: U.S. Department of Agriculture; scan by the UW-Madison Robinson Map Library (Wisconsin Historic Aerial Imagery), source, Public domain. 2022: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain. Both photographs cover the same 1.6 by 1.2 km. They were lined up by matching 40 small windows of the two photographs, mostly on Sauk Trail Road, the quarry rim and the woods edges, to within about 1 to 2 m; the road and the quarry rim were checked by eye. The Lake Michigan shore was not used, because it moves, and the old fields west of the road, now prairie, had nothing lasting to match, so they may be off by more. Labels: Sauk Trail Road placed and named from OpenStreetMap, the pier and the campground from the guide's sources, the rest from what the photographs show.

Video

An April walk around the quarry

On April 12, 2026, a hiker drives up from Milwaukee and walks the muddy trails to Quarry Lake, following the rim past the steep limestone walls and a small waterfall where runoff pours into the pit. At the point on Lake Michigan he reads a sign about the 700-foot loading pier and says nothing is left of it. Back by the lake, a sign marks the stone crusher's site, and he points out two pylons and the crusher's foundation in the water. He gives 1926 for the quarry's closing; our sources say 1925. At one point he climbs down a root-covered bank to the water's edge, although signs on the loop warn of steep cliffs and ask hikers to stay on the trail. The DNR says beach walkers can see the pier's remains.

Play “Exploring Harrington Beach State Park | Hiking Trails, Waterfall & Lake Michigan Views!” from YouTube
“Exploring Harrington Beach State Park | Hiking Trails, Waterfall & Lake Michigan Views!”, by Rob's Travels & Adventures on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Quarry, company town, state park

  1. Milwaukee businessman David Whittaker starts the Northwestern Stone Company to quarry dolomite on the Lake Michigan shore in the Town of Belgium. It fails.
  2. The Lake Shore Stone Company buys the quarry and builds Stonehaven, a company town with cottages, two dormitories and a company store that takes tokens.
  3. Up to 150 men a day blast and haul stone from a 25-acre pit. A crusher handles the rock, and a pier sends it out by lake boat for road building.
  4. Gravel replaces crushed stone in road work.
  5. The company dissolves and the quarry closes. Some houses are moved about three miles west to the village of Belgium.
  6. The old town becomes the 715-acre Harrington Beach State Park, and from 1968 the DNR buys the land. Sources differ on the park's start: a park sign says the early 1960s, Wikipedia's park article 1966 and its Stonehaven article 1992.
  7. A hiker films the crusher's foundation and two pylons in the water.

What's left

Quarry Lake and the foundations

The fishing pier on Quarry Lake, August 2022
The fishing pier on Quarry Lake, August 2022 · Photo: Jules Verne Times Two, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The sign "From Booming Business to Quiet Park" by the quarry recalls the blasting, mule-drawn steel cars and inclined tramways, August 2022
The sign "From Booming Business to Quiet Park" by the quarry recalls the blasting, mule-drawn steel cars and inclined tramways, August 2022 · Photo: Jules Verne Times Two, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The flooded quarry is the center of the park: a 26-acre lake ringed by limestone ledges and white cedars. The Quarry Lake trail, a mile long, circles it on crushed limestone and is rated universally accessible, with a fishing pier; bikes are not allowed, and pets must be on a leash 8 feet or shorter. Wikipedia says some foundations of Stonehaven's buildings are preserved in the park. The DNR has run guided walks on the town's history, one in August 2024 led by a local resident and starting at the Ansay Welcome Center, and the Luxembourg American Cultural Society listed a Stonehaven walking tour for August 6, 2026.

In a video filmed April 12, 2026, a hiker found a sign at the crusher's site, with two pylons and the crusher's foundation in the water at the edge of the lake. At the point on Lake Michigan he read a sign about the 700-foot loading pier and said nothing was left of it; the DNR's hiking page says beach walkers can see its remains.

Of the historic maps, only the 1959 Port Washington sheet shows the site well: it catches the shore at its top edge, with the flooded quarry drawn as a pond just inland and a wreck marked offshore.

  • Quarry Lake, 26 acres, the old pit
  • Limestone quarry walls
  • Foundations of company-town buildings
  • Crusher foundation and pylons
  • History signs
  • Pier remains in Lake Michigan
USGS topographic map of Harrington Beach State Park with the round Quarry Lake near the Lake Michigan shore
USGS The National Map, topo. Quarry Lake just inland from the Lake Michigan shore, with park roads to the west and County Road D at the top.
Aerial view of Quarry Lake in woods at right, with park roads, parking and the campground to the west
Aerial imagery, closer in. Quarry Lake in the woods at right, with the park's roads, parking and campground to the west.

Historic maps

Stonehaven on USGS maps, 1959

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Stonehaven, 1959
Port Washington sheet, 1959, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Port Washington is the closest city, about 11 miles south. From Milwaukee, I-43 runs north along the lake to the County Road D exit, then a short drive east to the park.

USGS topographic map of the Lake Michigan shore from Port Washington to Harrington Beach State Park, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Port Washington10.7 miabout 16 min
  1. From South Webster Street, turn right onto West Grand Avenue (WI 32), then left onto North Franklin Street, which becomes North Wisconsin Street.2.0 mi
  2. Take the ramp onto the highway north (WI 32).6.5 mi
  3. Take the exit and turn right onto County Road D.1.7 mi
  4. Turn right onto Sauk Trail Road into the park.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The park entrance is at 531 County Road D, Belgium. A vehicle admission sticker is required; there is a $5 surcharge if you don't buy one before using the park.
  • Quarry Lake trail: 1 mile, crushed limestone, universally accessible. No bikes. Pets on a leash 8 feet or shorter.
  • The park has about seven miles of trails and a campground.
  • Drones are banned in Wisconsin state parks except where posted (Wis. Adm. Code NR 45.04(1)(c)).

Photos

Stonehaven in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Stonehaven?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Stonehaven

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Wisconsin index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Stonehaven, Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation, Whittaker and the Northwestern Stone Company, the 1901 purchase, the 25-acre quarry and 150 workers, the immigrants, cottages, dormitories and tokens, the 1925 closing, the houses moved to Belgium, the foundations, the 1968 purchases and the 715-acre park in 1992.
  2. Wikipedia, "Harrington Beach State Park", retrieved October 2026: the 26-acre Quarry Lake, the 1901 to 1925 company, the establishment dates.
  3. Wisconsin DNR, "Harrington Beach State Park", read October 2026: hours, the sticker requirement, the phone. Its hiking page: the trails, the Quarry Lake loop, the leash and bike rules, the remains of the 700-foot pier. Its admission page: the fees effective August 19, 2025.
  4. Wisconsin DNR, "History Of Stonehaven: The Quarry Town", guided walk of August 17, 2024, led by a local resident and meeting at the Ansay Welcome Center.
  5. Luxembourg American Cultural Society, events of August 6, 2026: the Harrington State Park walking tour of Stonehaven, 531 County Road D, Belgium.
  6. Rob's Travels & Adventures, "Exploring Harrington Beach State Park | Hiking Trails, Waterfall & Lake Michigan Views!", YouTube, posted April 18, 2026, filmed April 12, 2026: the video on this page; the crusher sign and its 1,500 yards a day, the crusher foundation and pylons, the "steep cliff, stay on trail" signs, the pier sign, the admission requirement.
  7. Park sign "From Booming Business to Quiet Park," photographed August 2022 (Wikimedia Commons): the blasting, mule-drawn steel cars and inclined tramways, and the park's start in the early 1960s.
  8. Wisconsin DNR, "Flying-related activities", read October 2026: drones banned in state parks except where posted, Wis. Adm. Code NR 45.04(1)(c).
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits