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Category: History

Door County is rich in history, from its most prominent founding citizens to the business leaders who embraced tourism to make it the destination it is today. It’s a history of orchards, farming, and fishermen, but also of potters, artists, and writers. But more than anything, it’s a history told in the lives of the remarkable people who’ve called it home for a spell or a lifetime. Door County Pulse tells them all.

  • Resilience: 150 Years of the Door County Fair

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    When the carnival rides hum to life, the sweet smell of funnel cakes wafts through the air, and the county’s youth unload their pigs, cows and crafts along the midway at the Door County Fairgrounds on July 28, the 150-year legacy of the Door County Fair will live on. Behind the entertainment and thrills rests […]

  • Myrtle Clark, 93, Publishes Memoirs of a Farm Girl

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    On her 90th birthday in 2018, Myrtle Johnson Clark went zip-lining. This year, when she turned 93, she published a book. Zip-lining was on her bucket list. Writing her memoirs definitely was not, but spiritual urgings (and frequent reminders from her daughter, Judy) compelled her to finally put words on paper. Myrtle, the oldest of […]

  • LEARN ABOUT EGG HARBOR’S HISTORY DURING HOLLY DAYS

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    The Egg Harbor Historical Society will present a free History Hour video Nov. 26, 2 pm, at the Kress Pavilion, 7845 Church St., as part of Holly Days. Egg Harbor, The Way It Was is a homespun Bill Bertschinger video production.  Bertschinger produced his video using historical photos, many of which have not been shared […]

  • Brussels Store Is Empty No More

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    When Heather Truett and Nick Waack fell in love with the old building in Brussels in 2014, they knew it was the place where they wanted to create their dream for the future. What they didn’t know then — but would soon hear from longtime community residents — was not only how happy those locals […]

  • Jacksonport Historical Society Offers Merchandise at Farmers Markets

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    The Jacksonport Historical Society (JHS) will have a display of books it’s published about Jacksonport families, posters, prints, notecards and CDs at the town’s July 27 and Aug. 3 farmers markets.  Featured items will include coffee-table books of Fred Erskine’s photographs of Door County during the 20th century and pictures he took in Europe during […]

  • Maritime Wonders: Views from Sturgeon Bay’s Lighthouse Tower

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    As I left Sturgeon Bay’s steel bridge, driving south on Michigan Street, the Door County Maritime Museum’s newest attraction rose into view: the Jim Kress Maritime Lighthouse Tower. As Door County’s tallest building, it watches over the historically rich and geographically distinctive Sturgeon Bay. The idea for a lighthouse tower grew out of the museum’s […]

  • Heritage Village Comes to Life

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    Heritage Village celebrated its annual Root Beer Festival on July 3, and it will host another special event known as Dog Days – fittingly, during the “dog days of summer” – on Saturday, Aug. 7, 10 am – 3 pm.  While traveling no farther than Sturgeon Bay, it’s possible to be transported back in time some 140 […]

  • Door County Speaks: Record your family’s oral history with a Door County Library kit

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    My grandmother, born in 1874, was 46 years old when passage of the 19th Amendment finally gave her the right to vote. It never occurred to me, born with that privilege, to ask how she felt about being disenfranchised in that way for more than half her life. Now that I’ve lived as long as […]

  • This Old Store: Warner Grocery Served West-Side Families for Generations

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    In 1916, Henry Goettelman and William Warner formed the Goettelman-Warner Company, selling groceries and dry goods from a building on South Madison that was later owned solely by Goettelman. When the Bank of Sawyer next door moved to the D.C. Pisha Building, the space it vacated was converted fully to a grocery store, with an […]

  • History Kayak Tours Launch in Ephraim

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    The Ephraim Historical Foundation and Peninsula Kayak Company have partnered to share Door County history from kayaks. Guided tours will take paddlers through Eagle Harbor to focus on Ephraim’s history. The first tour was July 9, and future tours will take place every other Friday at 1 pm.  Make reservations for the history kayak tour […]

  • A Magnificent World of Ridges and Swales

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    “Door County is famous throughout the Midwest for its matchless scenery and climate, and for the kindly folk that inhabit this peninsula county. Surely Door County will not allow any of its natural shrines to be desecrated.”  — Albert Fuller, 1937, founding member of The Ridges Sanctuary It began about 1,400 years ago, after receding […]

  • Ephraim’s History Speaks Series Returns

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    The Ephraim Historical Foundation is bringing back History Speaks, a program designed for adults and older youth.  The scheduled programs are “History Mysteries,” July 13, 5-7 pm, at the Iverson House; “Camp Meenahga Collection,” July 20, 10:30 am – 1 pm, at the Anderson Barn; “Curtain’s Up at Northern Sky Theater,” July 28, 7:30-8:30 pm, at […]

  • It Takes a Historical Society: Liberty Grove Historical Society hosts tractor, arts festival July 24-25

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    The Liberty Grove Historical Society (LGHS) isn’t resting on its laurels. Although it netted $3,725 from its 20th annual fish boil on June 25, an even bigger event – the Antique Tractor and Arts Festival and Raffle – is planned for July 24-25, 10 am – 4 pm, on the society’s museum grounds on the […]

  • Tour Season Open at Horseshoe Bay Farms

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    Horseshoe Bay Farms has kicked off its inaugural season of tours to share both the history and the future vision of the 105-year-old farm, its 8.5-acre property, 11 original farm structures, vegetable garden and dahlia garden. Executive Director Drew Richmond led the first tours. Horseshoe Bay Farms completed an extensive master plan last year that […]

  • Stories from the Earth

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    Digging into ancient civilizations with archaeologists at Crossroads Picking through someone’s garbage would reveal a lot about the owner’s lifestyle – what the person ate and drank for sure, and possibly something about his or her leisure-time activities, like spending or reading habits.  Calling this activity an archaeological dig sounds far more intriguing, but sifting […]

  • Learn About Alpine Resort’s History

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    The Egg Harbor Historical Society will host a free history hour June 29, 7 pm, featuring a video about the Alpine Resort that Bill Bertschinger produced. The historical resort and its surrounding cottages opened to guests in the summer of 1922, and the property was sold this spring after being in the Bertschinger family for […]

  • Tour Historical Horseshoe Bay Farms

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    Horseshoe Bay Farms will continue its tours June 25, 1 pm; and June 26, 10 am. Throughout the tour of about an hour and a half, a guide will walk participants around the property and into select barns to share the nonprofit’s rich history and its vision for the future.  Tours at Horseshoe Bay Farms, […]

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

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    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 […]

  • Egg Harbor Wants to Change Dog Park Boundaries

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    Village asks for permission to push into town property; local historical society objects to new configuration. The Town of Egg Harbor has decided that further discussion is needed before it can weigh in on the Village of Egg Harbor’s proposal to reconfigure Harbor Hounds Dog Park to extend into a portion of town-owned land. Lisa […]