Door County, Wisconsin: Fisheries, Forests, Farms and Flatlanders

 

June 20, 2018

On the first Saturday of each May the Bay Shipbuilding Company hosts a tour of its shipbuilding and drydock facility in Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin. During winter 1000-feet long lake cargo ships come to the facility for rebuilding and repairs. This section in the photo being refurbished on dry land will eventually be lifted in to place on the ship in drydock where welders will reconnect each section to complete the rebuild of the freighter.

Reporter's note: In early May my wife and I rode Amtrak to Columbus, Wisconsin (just outside Madison) where we met two cousins from Iowa and then drove together 150 miles northeast to Door County, Wisconsin. Door County is a peninsula that sticks up in to Lake Michigan from near Green Bay. Our cousins had been there before for family vacations and knew their way around the peninsula quite well. We had reserved a cottage and spent a week exploring Door County. It is a major summer destination area for tourists and vacationers from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.

A little about Door County

The county has a number of harbor towns on Green Bay (east side of peninsula) and along Lake Michigan to the west side of the county. Door County has a year round population of about 28,000 with a large influx of tourists and seasonal residents, especially in the summer.

The biggest town, Sturgeon Bay (about 9,000 residents), is at the south end of the county where the peninsula attaches to the mainland. A man made ship canal at Sturgeon Bay provides a water passage from the bay to the lake as well as to a port and major shipyard. There are a few islands, particularly at the northern tip of the peninsula, that can be accessed via car ferry. The largest is Washington Island with a year round population of about 700 residents.

Door County, formed in 1851, takes its name from the strait between Washington Island and the main peninsula that connects Green Bay and Lake Michigan. The strait was known by native populations and later mariners as a dangerous passage plagued by sudden and intense wind storms. Early French explorers called the strait Porte Des Mortes (Door of Death or Death's Door). The name for the area stuck.

The first white settlers came to the island in the mid-1800's, attracted by plentiful forests and bountiful fishing on Lake Michigan and Green Bay. Some land was put to use for mixed agricultural uses, with moderate sized grain farms and agritourism still operating. Cherry orchards were introduced in the 1890's and reached their peak numbers in the late 1940's when 10,000 seasonal workers were paid by the pail to pick cherries. Cherry picking is now highly mechanized and a variety of products using cherries are sold in local markets.

Early Scandinavian settlers were seafarers and fishermen by background. Because of the available wood and the local fishing industry's need for fishing vessels, many boat building and repair businesses began in the county. The Bay Shipyard in Sturgeon Bay still builds and repairs lake cargo ships up to 1,000 feet long (the maximum length that can access the ship yard). During the winter, when parts of Lake Michigan freeze and lake shipping stops, the 'winter fleet' comes in for repairs. About 1,100 workers are employed at the Bay Shipyard during the peak repair season in the winter.

Door County first became a tourist destination in 1899 when the "Goodrich steamboats" began ferrying passengers from Chicago (250 miles away) and Milwaukee (150 miles distant) to the peninsula to escape the summer heat of the big cities. Later steamboats arrived bringing as many as 5,000 passengers at one time. The visitors needed lodging, transportation from the docks to their lodging, food and other vacation amenities. Tourism related businesses began to proliferate. Interestingly, there are virtually no chain restaurants or national lodging concerns once you leave Sturgeon Bay and head north.

By the 1920's an improved road system allowed visitors to drive to the peninsula and the steamboats faded. One effect of the steamboats was the decimation of huge tracts of timber cut to fuel the boats' boilers. Nearly all the current timber on the island is second growth. However, the state and county have kept many well-tended parks that preserved public access to the lake and bay and provide some excellent recreational possibilities.

A few favorites in Door County

We visited in early May, a bit before the main summer season, and many tourist attractions were still closed or operating on a reduced schedule. We had no problems with traffic or waits at places to eat, which other visitors told us can be a challenge during the summer. The entire peninsula/county is only about fifty miles long so the towns, villages, parks and visitors' amenities are fairly close together. We were able to visit several highlights of Door County in a week's time.

On the first Saturday of May each year the Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay teams up with the Bay Shipbuilding Company to offer public tours of the company's vast drydock and repair yard. The shipyard builds a few new articulated seagoing tug boats and some offshore support equipment. The shipyard's major business is maintaining the freighter ships plying the Great Lakes.

Retired workers from the yard explained the steps of the repair process as visitors were guided about the multi-acre shipyard. Workers explained that each work area produces or rebuilds parts of a ship and the goal is always to rebuild and then "join the largest practical sections to the ship." Gigantic cranes and lifting devices move the rebuilt sections to the body of the ship where workers slowly and carefully join the various sections to complete the ship. More than a 1,000 guests take the annual one day tour of the shipyard.

Our cousins said we had to "do a traditional Door County fish boil," so we did. In the 1830's the Scandinavians brought a technique they used in the old country to cook cod. In their new home they used whitefish, a plentiful net fish caught around the area. The night we had the fish boil there were three settings of about 70 diners for each setting. We were told that during the summer about 250 guests were served the fish boil four nights each week.

To feed our setting required 15 gallons of water brought to a rapid boil over an outdoor fire. Once the water was "roiling," the cook added 50 pounds of cut whitefish (each section about three inches long), 150 new potatoes, 100 small onions, four pounds of salt and seven pounds of butter. Each ingredient is added at a precise time. The last step is for the cook to throw about a half-gallon of kerosene on the fire which "burns off the residue" from the cooking process. It also gets everyone's attention who is sitting around the fire.

Whitefish are very bony. At dinner an employee passes among the guests demonstrating how to debone the whitefish. The fish were served with new potatoes, slaw and rolls. Dessert was cherry pie (Door County cherries we assumed) served alamode. It was a fabulous dinner.

Lots of Scandinavian themed restaurants still abound on the peninsula. One of our favorites was Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant and Butik. Among many favored dishes are Swedish pancakes ("so thin they only have one side") and pytte I panne-a Scandinavian version of corned beef hash served with a fried egg and pickled beets. The real draw is the grass roof on the restaurant with live goats grazing during the summer months. You can even see the goats on the goat cam via the internet.

This photo shows the entrance to the Hardy Gallery at Ephraim, Wisconsin-one of several historical towns on the Door County peninsula that juts in to Lake Michigan. For several decades it has been tradition for visitors to "paint" their names onto the outside of the building. Several hundred names are added annually, then painted over after a few years. The boathouse/gallery is on the site of the original dock where summer visitors to Door County landed for a respite from the city heat in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Another draw for tourists is the many lighthouses that still function to keep mariners safe on this part of Lake Michigan. Though all have been automated and no longer have a live lighthouse keeper, several have been restored with wonderful displays about the role of the lighthouse and the life of a lighthouse keeper. Our favorite was the Cana Island Light Station near the town of Bailey's Harbor. Owned by the Door County Maritime Museum since the Coast Guard donated the facility five years ago, the lighthouse was first lit in 1870. It still has a 250 watt electric lamp that signals the shallow shoals along that part of the coast. The lamp is still maintained by the Coast Guard. The lighthouse and keeper's quarters are being restored to their original design and décor.

The Cana light station is on an island accessed by a short walk through shallow water from the mainland. When we visited the lake level was up a bit and we had to ride across the span of water to the lighthouse. To cross over to the lighthouse we rode in a wagon equipped with life preservers and pulled by a John Deere tractor. The conveyance was an odd combination of farm equipment and water safety devices.

With 300 miles of shoreline, functioning lighthouses and a distinct fee of the seashore, Door County was once described by a "New York Times" travel writer as "the Cape Cod of the Midwest." That might be a stretch, but Door County is a unique and interesting place to visit. For us flatlanders, it was a nice opportunity to enjoy a bit of maritime history and ambience without traveling all the way to New England.

Learn more about attractions in Door County at their visitors' bureau website: http://www.doorcounty.com.

 
 

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