Navigation

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.

  • How Forestville Got Its Name

    By ,

    Sometimes it’s not so much about how a place got its name as it is about who gave it the name. And if those names seem obvious or without imagination, you have to remember that the folks who gave the names to places on this peninsula were pioneers trying to hew subsistence existence and, eventually, […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: First Xmas Tree in History

    By ,

    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 December 19, 1873 THE FISHING INTEREST. We are informed that the fishermen at Fish Creek will use about 1000 gill nets, as soon as the […]

  • A Half-century of Building Ships at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding

    By ,

    In October 1975, at the age of 18 and fresh out of high school, Dave Dart started a job at Bay Shipbuilding and had the privilege of working on the first 1,000-foot vessel that the company built in Sturgeon Bay. “My first job was putting together the inner bottoms for the Belle River. You start […]

  • Feature: Jens Jensen Returns to Door County

    By ,

    A huge crowd at an event in late August at the Baileys Harbor Town Hall saw Roger Kuhns go backstage with a tan suit over his arm. But the man who emerged wearing that suit a few minutes later looked and sounded nothing like Kuhns. Who he did resemble to an uncanny degree was 86-year-old […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Sturgeon Bay Brewing Company Closes

    By ,

    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 Independent December 3, 1886 The residents at Horseshoe Bay are endeavoring to secure a postoffice at that point. The petition has already been sent into the […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Monuments & Good, Fat Turkeys

    By ,

    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 November 30, 1877 It is about half-past eight o’clock in the evening now before the Green Bay mail arrives. The bad condition of the […]

  • PODCAST: The Omnibus and More Stories From the Door

    By ,

    On this episode of Stories from the Door, Myles Dannhausen Jr. takes us back to the 1970s party scene in Door County with a look at the Omnibus. Plus, Matthew Marcon tells us about how The Pac Van Transports Game-Goers, Carries Memories, written by Sally Slattery, Aleah Kidd delivers everything you’d ever want to know […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Railroads, Cherries & Slot Machines

    By ,

    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 November 21, 1873 Complaints about “that sidewalk on Cedar Street” have become chronic with our neighbor of the Advocate. Do they find navigation difficult between […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Petitions! Petitions! And More Petitions!

    By ,

    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 November 21, 1873 The Advocate says the Canal has been pushed into the bank five hundred feet this season and at that rate of progress […]

  • Vintage Clothing Display

    By ,

    The Hope United Church of Christ Art Alcoves will display a collection of antique and vintage dresses and other clothing items belonging to Susan MacLean until Nov. 26. They were saved by MacLean’s great-grandmother, grandmother and mother, and were passed on to her. Clothing to be displayed include a cape, skirt and bonnet from the […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: The End of World War I

    By ,

    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 November 14, 1873 In a moderate sized conflagration this town would lose more than the cost of a good fire engine. Why not have one, […]

  • Feature: One Hundred Years Since the End of ‘The Great War’

    By ,

    A century ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the “war to end all wars” ended. With the signing of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, between the Allies of World War I and Germany, a prelude to the formal Treaty of Versailles that would be signed six months […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Oldest Bachelor In Door County Active at 94

    By ,

    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 November 2, 1877 A Deer caused considerable amusement about Scofields & Co.’s mill yesterday morning, the deer having been chased into the mill boom […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Grim Reaper Busy, Police Raids

    By ,

    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 October 24, 1873 Eight or ten families of Germans arrived at Egg Harbor this week, having purchased a section of land, three and a half […]

  • 100 Years of Gibraltar School

    By ,

    Gibraltar High School is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. But like most high schools that, in the beginning, served communities that were primarily rural, Gibraltar didn’t just spring into life with no backstory. Its existence was preceded by 70 years of little independent schools that dotted the countryside. In northern Door County, the earliest […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Record Snow and Rock Quarries

    By ,

    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 October 16, 1874 Sanborn, of Bailey’s Harbor, has been affected with an aberration of the mind for some days past. It has become so bad […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Influenza and Explosions

    By ,

    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 October 9, 1874 Mrs. Wright of Clay Banks died last week after a long illness from dropsy, leaving a large family of small children unprovided […]

  • Moving the Horseshoe Bay Farms Cottages [Photos]

    By ,

    The next step in the preservation of Horseshoe Bay Farms took place Wednesday, Oct. 3, when two historic cottages were moved from the water side of the road to the farm property. The workers cottages were once home to the farm manager and assistant farm manager’s families. The Nicholas family purchased the farm from Glenn […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Highways and Opera Houses

    By ,

    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 October 2, 1874 After trying it one week Mr. Lee, the teacher engaged for the upper department of school came to the conclusion that he […]

  • Sold: Horseshoe Bay Farms – Pulse Podcast

    By ,

    This week on the Door County Pulse Podcast Andrew Kleidon is joined by Myles Dannhausen, writer and editor for the Peninsula Pulse, to talk about the future of the Weborg fishing property in Gills Rock, and the registration for the 2019 Door County Half Marathon. For our feature this week, we discuss the sale of […]