Navigation

Category: Features

  • Shedd Aquarium Scientist Researches Suckers in Door County

    Anglers and commercial fisheries don’t seek out suckers. More often, the omnivorous freshwater fish are considered “trash fish” to be thrown back into the water. But, although they may not be valuable to anglers, they certainly have value for researchers, according to Karen Murchie, the Shedd Aquarium’s director of freshwater research.  “Collecting data on when […]

  • Before Books, John Maggitti Helped Disarm Nukes

    Sometime in the early 1990s John Maggitti was at a Soviet air base – Sharomy Naval Air Base on the Kamchatka Peninsula – watching several dozen live nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union get loaded onto a FedEx 747 for a seven-hour flight to Naval Air Station Oakland in California. Maggitti was working as a weapons […]

  • CURIOSITIES: Are There Sturgeon in Sturgeon Bay?

    It’s a reasonable question to ask. On one hand, you could easily assume that a bay named for a fish would boast a plentiful supply of said fish. But on the other hand, you might also expect that fish to be plentiful on local menus or the target of a thriving sportfishing industry.  The short […]

  • Moving History: David DeVooght relocates Little Sister Resort

    The first dim light of morning is only beginning to stretch over the Sister Bay water tower March 8, but David DeVooght and his 18-person crew have already been on-site for an hour, preparing the first of four buildings they would move that day.  Workers from Wisconsin Public Service are beginning the task of disconnecting […]

  • Healthy Made Easy: Guilt-free eating at Get Real Cafe

    Sunshine streams through the high windows of Sturgeon Bay’s Get Real Cafe, illuminating the colorful dishes coming from the open kitchen: a quinoa salad topped with red onions and avocado, an Italian sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes, a bowl of pork-curry vegetable soup with garbanzo beans and mushrooms bobbing on the surface. The place […]

  • Compassionate Law: Immigration Attorney Luca Fagundes

    There are early experiences we have that, in the moment, appear to be isolated incidents or even nothing more than a meaningless part of the everyday minutiae. Unbeknownst to us, however, these tiny blips on the timeline can actually become cornerstones for some other aspect of our life down the road.  For Luca Fagundes, such […]

  • United Way Raises Bar Following Record Fundraising Year

    United Way of Door County has raised the bar on its current fundraising campaign to accommodate a record year of giving in 2020. The nonprofit organization has set a 2021 campaign goal of $775,000 and kicked off the campaign Aug. 18 at MAX in Baileys Harbor, with about 75 people in attendance.  “Knowing it’s a […]

  • Building a Community: Door Karma Farms

    We’re in Chris Schuh’s truck, driving on the long, gravel road that heads east from Door Karma Farms’ storefront on Highway 57 in Baileys Harbor. Schuh, a co-owner of Door Karma, wants to show me more of the farm, but the land we pass doesn’t look like traditional farmland. He drives past a large swath […]

  • Attend a Fish Boil, Preserve History: Two decades in, the LGHS annual fundraiser is still going strong

    What could have been more appropriate than celebrating an organization’s 20th birthday in 2020? The Liberty Grove Historical Society (LGHS) had big plans to do that last year until 2020 turned out to be uncooperative. Undeterred, society members carried on and “made do,” as their ancestors would have expected. In fact, they not only carried […]

  • The Language of Pride

    Proclamations work to support and include the LGBTQIA+ community Pride gets a bad rap by making the list of deadly sins, but it’s the opposite of a negative force in human existence when it comes to LGBTQIA+ Pride. That sort of pride helps lift the veil of shame and social stigma by promoting self-affirmation, dignity, […]

  • The Unassuming Man: Remembering Bill Guenzel

    Ralph Murre was at dinner with an author-in-residence at Write On, Door County several years ago when the author mentioned how beautiful the property was.  “What a swell and helpful fellow that gardener and lawn-mowing guy is,” the author told him.  Murre asked what this gardener looked like. Was he a lean, older man, probably […]

  • Christening Day Arrives for New Lighthouse Tower

    Following maritime custom, a selected volunteer announced the christening of the new Door County Maritime Museum (DCMM) Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower by smashing a bottle of champagne against the wall where the tower’s first stone was laid. The May 22 christening event drew a large crowd to the parking lot at the base of […]

  • Searching for a New Child Care Model

    When the Door County YMCA announced the closure of the Barker Child Development Center in Sturgeon Bay in July 2020, Executive Director Tom Beerntsen said there were many factors, but it boiled down to one primary cause.

  • Giving the Gift of Motherhood: Abby Duebler’s surrogacy journey

    Abby Duebler posted news on social media in February that she was pregnant again. Family and friends were delighted to hear that she and her husband, Ryan, would be welcoming their fourth child. The celebrations soon turned to confusion, however: The baby wasn’t hers. Duebler is instead a surrogate who is carrying a baby for […]

  • Harvesting Maple Syrup With Louis Sohns

    Louis Sohns, nearly 85, has been tapping trees since he was six years old As farmers prepare their fields for a new season of growing, the harvest for another season has recently concluded: maple-syrup making.  Hard at the classic tree-tapping business this year, as he has been in one way or another for more than […]

  • Bonnie Spielman

    After hearing her name countless times, seeing her face in plenty of photos and reading about her prowess as a bartender, it was a relief to finally get Bonnie Spielman on the phone. A busy Labor Day weekend had just passed, and she had spent it doing exactly that: laboring. Selling hats upon hats at […]

  • Stephanie Birmingham Fights for Those Who Live on the Margins

    Through advocating for mental health and for those with disabilities, counseling, working with inmates, providing opportunities for people without homes, and serving as a bedside volunteer at a children’s hospital, Birmingham has reached a great number and great diversity of individuals.

  • Repurposing Nostalgia: David Frykman Creates Whimsical Wooden Keepsakes from Eagle Tower

    Since likely any of us can remember, Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park was a fixture on the landscape — as familiar and beloved to Door County as cherry trees and lighthouses.  Whether or not you huffed up the 75-foot-high structure perched atop a 180-foot limestone bluff to take in an epic view of the […]

  • The Colors of Karsten Topelmann: Ephraim artist died Feb. 13 at 91

    In the buttoned-down, monochromatic village of Ephraim, Karsten Topelmann was a splash of bright color that spread far beyond the canvases of his renowned paintings. Topelmann was a ubiquitous, sometimes flamboyant presence who connected to the young, the old, the artist and the tradesperson, in addition to the lovers of the Door County landscapes he […]

  • Tractor Drenches Three with Ice Water for Special Olympics

    Three people – two of them wearing grass skirts, the third wearing an “Unbearable” T-shirt and a polar bear hat – sat in chairs in the parking lot of Nicolet Bank’s Fourth Avenue branch in Sturgeon Bay. Poised above their heads was a tractor bucket filled with icy water.  It was a balmy 20 F with […]