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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.

  • Door County Historical Society Focuses on The Beatles

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    The Door County Historical Society will host its monthly dinner program, “The Beatles,” presented by Warren Bluhm and Ben Larsen on Nov. 27 at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Sturgeon Bay. Warren Bluhm and Ben Larsen will review the impact of The Beatles for the last Door County Historical Society meeting of the year. […]

  • Door County Historical Museum Needs Help Identifying Sidewalk Stones

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    Did you ever notice the sidewalk stones on street corners with names cut into them? Did you know that these were the pre-1943 street names? Most of Sturgeon Bay’s street names were changed in that year. The city was bustling with new residents who had moved to Sturgeon Bay to work in the busy wartime […]

  • How Valmy Got Its Name

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    History can be a very murky thing. Sometimes as you try to unlock a mystery of the past, you find instead a frustrating lack of detail. For example, how did the chunk of property just right of center on a Sevastopol plat map come to be known as Valmy back in 1899? Just try finding […]

  • Walloon: Door County’s Endangered Language

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    Bau joo! Commai estau? If you were at a church, grocery store or tavern in 1930s Brussels — the southern Door County community located within the largest Belgian-American settlement in the country — you likely would have heard this jovial greeting of “Hello! How are you?” What appears to mimic French is actually the Belgian […]

  • War Comes to Door County: Remembering Hyper-patriotism and Anti-German Sentiments on 100th Anniversary of WWI

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    World War I came knocking on Door County doors as soon as the United States entered the almost three-year-old conflict on April 6, 1917. The United States was joining allies Britain, France and Russia in fighting Germany and its allies (Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria). April 6 was a Friday. By the following Monday, […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Nov. 9 – 17

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    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 7, 1873 The storm of Monday night of last week at Little Sturgeon was the most fearful ever seen at that place. The Dock […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Nov. 3 – 10

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    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 29, 1875 Prognosticators say that we are to have twenty-six snow storms this winter, each one to last three weeks.   The Republican, October 30, […]

  • Door County Maritime Museum Opens Veterans Day Exhibit

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    The Door County Maritime Museum will host a special Veterans Day Exhibit Nov. 4 – 18. Learn the history of Veterans Day itself as well as more information about the many veterans of Door County who served faithfully through the country’s past conflicts. Included in this exhibit is the unveiling of the newest six-foot-long model […]

  • Immanuel Lutheran Church Celebrates 125-Year History at Nov. 5 Service

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    On Oct. 29 Immanuel Lutheran Church in Baileys Harbor celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation begun by Martin Luther, and it also began a yearlong journey to Immanuel’s 125th anniversary of the church in Baileys Harbor. A little more than 125 years ago, 15 families in Baileys Harbor decided they needed a new Lutheran […]

  • Historic Preservation Committee Supports Saving Granary

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    Just days after an anonymous donor pledged $1.25 million to stabilize and restore the Teweles and Brandeis Grain Elevator on Sturgeon Bay’s west waterfront, the city’s Historic Preservation Committee formally expressed its support for saving the structure at its meeting Monday, Oct. 30. The committee passed a resolution urging the common council “to make every […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Oct. 27 – Nov. 2

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    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 MISSING – Nate Sanders, of Menominee, started last Friday evening at dusk from Squaw island, north of Washington island, in a pound […]

  • Donor Pledges $1.25 Million for Granary Restoration

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    An anonymous donor has pledged $1.25 million for restoration of the Teweles and Brandeis Granary building on Sturgeon Bay’s west waterfront. The announcement by the Sturgeon Bay Historical Society Thursday, Oct. 26 is the latest development in the ongoing controversy over the future of the Granary property. ‘Somebody is an angel,” said SBHS member Christie […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Oct. 20 – 27

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    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 Mr. Knapp of Clay Banks has been several times in town lately attending to twenty-six, more or less, law suits which he has […]

  • Sister Bay Historical Society Invites Locals to Contribute to Photo Archives

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    As the Village of Sister Bay proceeds into its 106th year as an incorporated entity, the Sister Bay Historical Society (SBHS) has launched an ambitious effort to continue the preservation of the village’s photographic past. The SBHS photo archiving committee welcomes local residents to bring their personal historical photos and documents to the Sister Bay […]

  • News From This Week’s Past: Oct. 13 – 20

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    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 10, 1874 The talk on the streets seems to indicate that it is now definitely settled that work will commence on the canal in a […]

  • Catholics Celebrate 100th Anniversary of Fátima Apparitions

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    Visions of the Virgin Mary go back to the beginning of Christianity. Catholics call these visions “private revelations,” as opposed to public revelations, which catholicculture.org describes as “the revelation given to the apostles, which closed with the death of the last apostle in such a way that nothing can be added to it.” Some say […]

  • New From This Week’s Past: Oct. 6 – 13

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    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.   Weekly Expositor Independent, October 1, 1880 S.C. Palmer, of Ahanpee, has a talent for killing pole-cats. He has slaughtered seven already this fall. Who said the Ahnapeeans […]

  • Middle Schoolers Continue Archaeological Dig at Crossroads

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    As long as Crossroads at Big Creek can find funding, the Fall Archaeological Dig will be a rite of passage for area middle school students. Thanks to this annual activity, Crossroads has located and registered Native American archaeological sites spanning 2,000 years of occupation on the three Crossroads properties. During the past four years, students […]

  • Historical Society Explores ‘Sturgeon Bay Drugstores of the Past’ Oct. 23

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    The Door County Historical Society will host its monthly dinner program, “Sturgeon Bay Drugstores of the Past” presented by Mary Grota and Ginny Haen of the Peninsula Genealogical Society on Oct. 23, at the Moravian Church in Sturgeon Bay. Drugstores sell drugs, but in their research Grota and Haen found that they also sold any […]

  • Historical Society Presents ‘Peninsula State Park in Postcards’ Oct. 7

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    The Door County Historical Society will host its Saturday afternoon yesteryear programming “Peninsula State Park in Postcards,” presented by Richard Lauder on Oct. 7, 2 pm in the Vignes Schoolhouse at the Heritage Village at 2041 Michigan St. in Sturgeon Bay. Officially established in 1910, Peninsula State Park is an ever-changing location on the Door […]