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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.

  • News From This Week’s Past: Cleaning Suckers and Late Burials

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor March 20, 1874 Mr. R. Noble is at work getting his steam ferry, landing docks, etc. ready for the opening day. The Independent March 19, 1886 […]

  • Egg Harbor History Series Continues

    The Egg Harbor Historical Society is continuing its history programs with a showing of a 2015 video interview with Egg Harbor’s Marie (Wulf) Mikels on March 18, 1 pm, at the Kress Pavilion. Mikels was born in 1928. After attending first grade at southern Door County’s Stokes School, Mikels and her family moved to downtown […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: End of the Forestville Bank

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor March 13, 1874 LOST HIS MONEY. – Peter Zenners, Register of Deeds, went to bed on Monday night, the 2d inst. With about $140.00, he avers, […]

  • Historical Society Introduces Granary Project Team

    The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society introduced the principal project leaders for the restoration of the Teweles and Brandeis grain elevator March 9. Sturgeon Bay engineer Mike Till will lead the project onsite. James Dallman of the Milwaukee firm La Dallman is the chief architect, and Sturgeon Bay native Jeff Beane of Silman is the project’s […]

  • Eagle Bluff Light Station Preservation Continues

    The Door County Historical Society (DCHS) has renewed its 1960 commitment to preserve Eagle Bluff Light Station, located in Peninsula State Park, by commissioning a Historic Structure Report (HSR). The Jeffris Family Foundation has awarded an HSR grant for Eagle Bluff. This lead gift consists of a matching grant: the foundation will match every donation […]

  • Art of Social Engagement

    by Estella Lauter The current exhibit at the Unitarian Universalist Gallery – Protest! Bearing Witness, Seeking Justice – is extraordinary in several ways. Works in traditional media – a painting by DarRen Morris, a wood relief by Roger Benedict, three textile wall hangings and a bank of poems – are the exceptions rather than the rule. […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: The Last of the ‘Door County Democrat’

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor March 6, 1874 March came in so sweetly and beautifully warm that our poet warbled, “Sunday morning, Winter and Spring kissed in the sunrise and each […]

  • Rotary Club’s Shipyard Tours

    The Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay presents the 26th annual Shipyard Tour on May 4: the one day each year when Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and CenterPointe Yacht Services open their doors for public tours of the shipbuilding industry. For the first time, advance tickets will be available. Tours departing Fincantieri and CenterPointe will begin at […]

  • Lighthouse Festivals

    The Door County Maritime Museum’s (DCMM, dcmm.org) 2019 spring and fall Door County Lighthouse Festivals will be held June 7-9 and Oct. 12-13, respectively. The festivals include land-based, boat and adventure tours that reach all 11 lighthouses and provide exclusive access to several that are not typically open to the public, including Chambers Island Lighthouse, […]

  • The Nature of History: Honoring the legacy of Roy Lukes 

    by Julie Hein, Lake Ledge Naturalist and Director of Special Projects, Egg Harbor Historical Society Most often, when one reads the word history, it evokes a vision of people, places and artifacts. Even the definition of the word puts humans front and center: History is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs. Yet […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Pipe Smokers Cause Accidents

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor Independent February 28, 1879 At Washington Island they pay their school teacher fifty dollars per month. A good teacher is worth that. Weekly Expositor Independent February […]

  • Sturgeon Bay Historical Society Announces Contractors for Granary Restoration

    The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society (SBHS) has contracted with structural-engineering services firm Silman to oversee the restoration of the historic Teweles and Brandeis Granary. The SBHS has raised private donations to restore the structure and is working with the City of Sturgeon Bay to finalize plans to return it to its original location on the […]

  • EHHS Presents Video Interview, March 4

    The Egg Harbor Historical Society (EHHS) will present a video interview with Sarah Anschutz and her late husband, Bill, on March 4, 1 pm, at the Kress Pavilion. EHHS board member Sandra Dirks had a 45-minute chat with the couple, who owned the old Carlsville Tavern, and learned about their Carlsville, Egg Harbor and Door […]

  • Shipyard Tours

    The Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay will present its 26th annual Shipyard Tour on May 4. For one day each year, Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and CenterPointe Yacht Services open their doors for public tours, and for the first time, advance tickets will be available for online purchase. Tours departing from Fincantieri Bay Ship Shipbuilding and […]

  • He Put the Fun in Door County: Thumb Fun Founder Doug Butchart Dies at 88

    To meet Doug Butchart was to meet a caricature come to life. Everything about his appearance seemed exaggerated: the huge, square eyeglasses that could have doubled as snow goggles, the bushy eyebrows that periscoped over the rims of those glasses, the shock of white hair, the tiny legs carrying a Santa’s belly and that big, […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Bridge Building & Pea Soup

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor February 20, 1874 Those ship canal lies are still circulated and repeated by the two or three journals who have been constantly telling us that one […]

  • EHHS Presents on Harvey and Helen Haen, Feb. 25

    The Egg Harbor Historical Society will present a free program about Harvey and Helen Haen on Feb. 25, 1 pm, at the Kress Pavilion. The society will discuss “Harvey and Helen Haen, Two ‘Makers’ of Egg Harbor” through a new program that reviews their many contributions. Attendees will also hear from Harvey himself, who was […]

  • Supper Club Program

    The Egg Harbor Historical Society will present a free program Feb. 18 at 1 pm at the Kress Pavilion: “The History of Supper Clubs in Wisconsin and Door County.” Wisconsin became the true home of the supper club, loosely defined as a usually family-owned restaurant with a bar specializing in brandy cocktails, a separate dining […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Fire, Mail & Quarantine

    All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor February 13, 1874 FIRE. – M. Cousineau’s house was burned last Friday night. It was a log house and very old – one of the oldest […]

  • Door County’s Cheese Factories of Old: Two-part program opens Door County Historical Society’s 2019 series

    The Door County Historical Society (DCHS) announces their first program of 2019: Wisconsin Cheese & Door County Cheese Factories. The two-part program will benefit the DCHS Endowment Fund and is scheduled for Feb. 23 at Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay. Jim Pionkoski, owner of Wisconsin Cheese Masters in Egg Harbor, will be the first […]