Category: Community
Door County community news from the Peninsula Pulse. Find information about health programs, fundraisers, announcements, and more to keep you in the loop in your community.
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Paul Sills is quite possibly the most influential man in American theater that you have never heard of. Like so many successful people who have chosen to make Door County their home, Paul has had a long career of triumphs in the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles theater scenes, and now focuses on sharing […]
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Land of Midnight Sun Comes to Light in Door County: Scandinavian traditions in the Door
Scandinavians staying in Door County have been known to experience a more friendly type of “Stockholm Syndrome” whereby the affected travels thousands of miles to feel as if he never left home. Case-in-point is recent Swedish immigrant Helene Ingsten-Anderson, owner of Flora Special Occasion Flowers in Sister Bay, who sees glimpses of her homeland at […]
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Speeding Off to “Virtual Work” on the Information Highway
Every morning Jana Raines of Baileys Harbor finishes her morning coffee and a chat with her husband and leaves for work – in Somerset, New Jersey, 1,047 miles away. It takes only seconds as she sits at her desk, just off the living room, turns on her computer and logs onto the company’s website with […]
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Door County’s Old Ski Hills: Warm Memories of Cold Winter Fun
Many Door County locals experience a wave of nostalgia every time they drive past Little Sweden on Highway 42 between Egg Harbor and Fish Creek. A quick glance in the direction of those rolling hills brings back fond memories of a crackling fireplace, knit caps, seeing your breath in the cold air, lace-up boots and […]
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If you live in the northern Door area, I’m sure you’ve seen it. If you live anywhere in Door County, I know you’ve heard about it. I am, of course, talking about the “Quarry House” on Spring Road in Fish Creek – a large, French-style manor house set right into a stone quarry that has […]
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You Have to Find the Right Insect: Dr. Guy L. Bush
“You have to find the right insect to study, to take you to the right places.” This is what Dr. Guy Louis Bush always told his entomology and evolutionary biology students at the beginning of the semester. Dr. Bush is speaking from experience, as his study of the apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, has taken […]
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Peninsula State Park: A Portrait of What Door County Used to Be
“Let the State of Wisconsin give to its children this vast playground, where the old, and tired, and worn may grow young in spirit and rested in body, nursed by the purity of Nature’s medicine, and where the young may romp and their bodies grow strong among the wonders of scenic beauty.” – Assemblyman Thomas […]
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Gratitude is Attitude: Uncle Tom’s
It’s not unusual for the soul searcher to pull up roots and start a new life in a new place. A man compelled to search for peace and quiet might pack his things, travel as far north as possible, turn right at the farmer’s field onto a quiet, seldom traveled road, and hole up in […]
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Music Man Charlie Eckhardt is Leading the Parade
Like Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, Gibraltar Schools’ music teacher Charlie Eckhardt is leading the parade…and his students are keeping step. Since first walking through the Gibraltar Schools’ music room in 2000, Eckhardt has won the hearts of teachers, students, and parents. With an infectious enthusiasm that radiates through his students, Eckhardt’s influence […]
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The Voice of Door County: Eddy Allen
Door County boasts many natives, but it takes a special breed to be recognized as a Door County “personality” – that person who sets the tone for the peninsula, an icon that embodies everything great about life in our small communities. These are the people who know everyone and everything, not because they like to […]
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Preserving a Community’s History: Ephraim Foundation
Founded in 1853, Ephraim is historically significant on many levels, not least of which is its status as one of the oldest organized communities in Door County. Today, the village’s more than 150 year-old history and the story of its early settlement are preserved through the dedicated efforts of the Ephraim Historical Foundation, established in […]
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Musical Ambassador: Eric Lewis
The first words Eric Lewis utters on his live recording at Camp David in Fish Creek are, “I have to say, I didn’t expect this many people to show up.” And once you meet the quiet, humble man with an accent that is distinctly not of northern Wisconsin, you can believe that he was surprised […]
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Subtleties in Wood: The furniture of Joel Thomas
Customers strolling through the county are exposed to all kinds of artwork – watercolor, pottery, sculpture and photography to name a few. Another medium not always instantly thought of as art is woodworking, unless of course one has seen Joel Thomas’ handcrafted furniture. The detail, the tones of the wood he selects, and the overall […]
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Cooking Up a Restoration: Ellison Bay’s Savory Spoon
Right on the main drag of Highway 57 in Ellison Bay sits a modest, two story home. It is the type of home that a person can drive by quite literally hundreds of times without noticing. It is unassuming and may not spark the interest of the average passerby. The moment it starts to get […]
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Sturgeon Bay’s 3rd Avenue: Past and Present
In 1850, Oliver Perry Graham built a log cabin on the east shore of Sturgeon Bay, the wilderness of northeastern Wisconsin. The rugged landscape – dense forests, treacherous waters, rocky fields – was challenging, as well as intimidating. But the early settlers were hearty immigrants who recognized opportunity. Shortly after his arrival, Graham was joined […]
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Treating the Whole Person: Michele Geiger-Bronsky
Several years ago, my friend “Jane” started raving about the woman she referred to as her doctor. “You like going to your exams?” we asked suspiciously. “Absolutely!” Jane replied. “It’s like visiting a good friend, a therapist, and a doctor all at once. She’s fantastic.” Jane’s “doctor” is Michele Geiger-Bronsky, a nurse for over 30 […]
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The Architecture of Steve Wadzinski
It strikes you immediately. It’s a long, narrow window, no more than a few inches wide on the long west side of the structure. If it were simply turned 90 degrees it could slip by almost unnoticed. Sure, it might register as a bit peculiar, but it’s not the window itself that steals your eyes; […]
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The Legends of Death’s Door: Crossing between fact and fancy
In Door County, heritage and history seep from every place imaginable. A sense of ancestry drips from the names painted upon mailboxes and carved into roadside placards, while each row of cherry trees in an orchard draws lines back to earlier days. These elements speak to the history of this place as much as the […]
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Actor, Prankster, Restrauteur & “Mayor”: Fish Creek’s Digger DeGroot
In Door County, the definition of what makes someone a “local” seems to fluctuate depending upon who you ask. For some, it’s a title given to all babies born north of the county line; for others, it’s a designation reserved for those whose family trees have roots on the peninsula through multiple generations; and then […]
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Split, Stack, Stoke: Weathering Winter with a Woodstove
When we first purchased our house, I imagined that I would spend some of the days of the long Door County winter sitting beside the fireplace in the main room. Perhaps I could pass the time with a book and a mug of coffee – what better way is there to spend a January day? […]