Charles Martin's 1881 history of Door County, Wisconsin, provides a brief survey of the early history of the county, as well as descriptions of the towns of Washington, Otumba (Sturgeon Bay), Forestville, Gibralter, Chambers' Island, Brussels, Liberty Grove, Clay Banks, Nasewaupee, Sevastopol, Bailey's Harbor, Gardner, Union, and Jacksonport. Brief biographical sketches of county residents and a county business directory are included.
Stretching midway across Wisconsin's famous Door County peninsula, Sturgeon Bay has developed into the county's business and industrial center. Divided by the waterway it's named after, this small city provided a home to a working waterfront that once housed sawmills and docks for shipping ice, quarried stone, and, later, cherries. A canal dug from Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan in 1880 enabled ships to avoid the long passage over the tip of the peninsula. Sturgeon Bay became a shipbuilding capital, housing three major yards. The lively downtown districts on each side of the bay sported the typical hotels, taverns, stores, and blacksmith shops. Residents took pride in their newly formed schools, churches, and public services such as the Pioneer Fire Department. Families, fortunate to live in a land of great natural beauty, enjoyed recreational pursuits in the woods and on the water, whether it was perch fishing early on a summer morning or skating over the ice on a crisp winter afternoon.
Jutting out of Wisconsin into the blue waters of Lake Michigan, the scenic peninsula of Door County is endowed with the longest coastline of any county in the nation. Since the mid-1800s, the region has boasted a strong maritime industry, dependent on the constant vigilance and efforts of U.S. Coast Guard units. The county has been home to as many as 12 historic light stations, as well as three life-saving stations. Beginning with Pottawatomie Light in 1837 and Sturgeon Bay Canal Life-Saving Station in 1886, keepers and surfmen survived both boredom and peril to ensure safe navigation and commerce, while rescuing those in distress. Through archival photographs, stories of shipwrecks, rescues, service, and pride spring to life. Rare rescue images of the Otter, a schooner which wrecked in 1895, are especially noteworthy.
A Wisconsin bookstore owner and cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan. Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s hunting cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up on. So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the the strait known as Death’s Door to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake—but if they’re not careful, she just might be its next victim.
Children's Picture Book about Door County, Wisconsin. With rhyming text and whimsical illustrations, this book features favorite family activities and tourist highlights of this lovely Lake Michigan destination.
