Boaters are being asked to maintain no-wake speeds until further notice.
But there’s a bit more going on than high water levels–at least in Shiocton.

“With all this snow melt and all the rain that we got, water’s just really, really high this year,” said Zack Seitz, a conservation warden with the DNR.

The water has come down a bit since this weekend, sitting at about 13ft on the Wolf River.
But ice moving through has already done damage, knocking a popular pier off the map.

“And it’s actually downriver somewhere,” he said. “Nobody’s found it yet.”

The public is being asked to keep an eye out and to keep this description of the renegade pier in mind.

“I don’t know, your average fishing pier,” said Seitz. “Probably about 20ft long. It had metal railings. Black metal railings. I would think it would be at least 5-6ft high.”

They are hoping to complete the recovery before the no-wake is lifted.

“It’s going to be sitting there and when a boat goes over the top of it, they’re motor or the bottom of the boat might hit it and it becomes a safety issue.”

The pier just adds to the obstacles out on the water for boaters.

“It will hopefully keep people going slow enough that they’re not going to be hitting trees or stumps or branches underneath the water,” he said. “Or piers.”

All hope is not lost–there have been multiple sightings of the elusive pier.

“I’ve heard people tell me that as far as two bends down the river–quarter mile, half-mile down the river–they saw it floating by.”

The Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department’s search zone spans several miles, nearly reaching Stephensville.

“I’m not sure where it ended up, but hopefully we’re going to find it,” said Seitz. “There’s a pier on the loose.”

Police will resume the search first thing in the morning and they are not fooling around.
They are bringing imaging equipment to scan the water and hopefully end the mystery of the missing pier.