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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Marketing Consultant Presents Plan Outline to Coalition
A marketing consultant contracted by the Door County Peninsula Strategic Marketing Coalition pulled no punches in assessing all parts of the county’s tourism engine during an informal question and answer session Wednesday, May 31 with 19 attendees at the Baileys Harbor Town Hall.
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Faces of the Past: Chester Thordarson
One of the most fascinating characters in Door County’s history has to be Chester Thordarson, particularly where Rock Island is concerned. Born in Iceland in 1867, Thordarson immigrated with his family to Milwaukee when he was nearly six years old. Chester and his family moved throughout the Midwest and by the time he was 20, […]
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Finding “Door County Beautiful”: One historian’s discovery of the roots of tourism
For any tourist destination such as Door County, marketing the place and what it has to offer is absolutely essential. The medium for delivering the message has commonly fallen to some form of ephemera. Ephemera is printed matter intended to be of use and value for only a very short period of time. Current examples […]
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It hits us when we’re home alone and we shut off the TV, revealing the eerie silence of an empty house. Sometimes you feel it when you drag the garbage to the curb at night, or for the rurally inclined, to the burning barrel in the back yard. The feeling, the sense, that someone else […]
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Dedicated to a Life of Service: Denise Bhirdo
Denise Bhirdo has dedicated her life to service. Whether serving the customers of her long-established Sister Bay business, or in her time-consuming role as a local government official, Denise Bhirdo spends more time than most attending to the needs of other people in the county. Denise is the co-owner of Bhirdo’s By The Bay, a […]
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The Patricia Shoppe: Bringing Legacies Together Through Renovation
Originally built in the 1880s, the former Egg Harbor Town Hall was the site of town elections and public gatherings (including the popular Saturday Afternoon Movie showing) for over 100 years until finally closing its doors as a public meeting place and government building in 1990. A simple clapboard building with a slightly raised stage […]
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While quaint summer cottages and condominium conveniences appeal to many seasonal residents of the peninsula, for others, there’s simply no place like “home” – away from home that is. A condo is often where it all starts, the day-dreaming, that is, the constant dreaming about the “perfect Door County home.” For Bob Murphy, it began […]
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Stovewood: Pioneer Construction
Between roughly the late 1880s and World War I, a type of construction known as “stovewood” was employed in the United States. Stovewood, Richard W. E. Perrin writes in Historic Wisconsin Buildings: A Survey in Pioneer Architecture 1835-1870, “appears to be the only type of log construction that does not have any clear-cut antecedents in […]
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Passing along History: Two Local Women Team up for Book on Sturgeon Bay’s Past
History, like languages, can be lost unless passed on through word-of-mouth or written documentation. Sturgeon Bay’s beginnings could become whispers of a time that once was, but with the help of two employees at the Door County Museum, Ann Jinkins and Head Curator Maggie Weir, along with the Arcadia Press, future generations who reside in […]
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Location and Longevity: A History of Two Cheese Factories in Door County
It seems that no matter how many yellowed pages are flipped back through the history books, Door County is remembered for growing fruit. However, cherry and apple blossoms are not the only agriculture to speckle the horizons of Door County’s history. Door County has had a rich, agricultural tradition over the years which includes contributing […]
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I’ve seen you do it, and I do it, too: pull over to the side of the road, jump out of the car, and attempt – most often in vain – to capture the essence of a big old wooden Door County barn with a camera. My particular favorites are those slightly or even largely […]
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As politicians, lobbyists and policy makers in Washington and Madison continue to dance around the issue of healthcare coverage for all, and as fewer and fewer small businesses are fiscally able to provide even minimal insurance coverage for their employees, there is a relatively new organization in Door County that is endeavoring to make sure […]
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Local Designer Gives Baileys Harbor a Facelift
My regular daily “commute” rarely takes me to Baileys Harbor, so I drove slowly through the village, taking in the stores and restaurants, some new to me and some that have been there for as long as I can remember. As I came upon Nathan Nichols & Company’s renovated storefront, I had the feelings simultaneously […]
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With Horses in Mind: Designing a Door County Ranch
As you drive through the gate and pass along a row of young sugar maples, the A & A Ranch comes serenely into view. Made up of a stable/lounge, a large indoor training ring, a ranch house, and several out buildings surrounded by pastures, this ranch is new to Sister Bay but feels as if […]
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The Alexander Noble House in “Olde Towne” Fish Creek
“A jolly good town is old Fish Creek, The best on the pike I know: With its back to the rock and its face to the sea, Where the rollicking breezes blow. As snug as a bug in an old woolen rug, It lies there embowered in green: You may go where you like, on […]
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“Grudge” – the Enduring Rivalry between Sister Bay and Baileys Harbor
The annals of sport are filled with storied rivalries. They’re called clashes, battles, and feuds. In Door County League baseball, one of the best is referred to simply as the “Grudge.” It’s Sister Bay versus Baileys Harbor – Bays versus A’s, North versus South. And in its heyday, it featured as much intensity as an […]
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Examples to Follow: Dave & Vonnie Callsen
The basic story line is familiar: couple lives in Everytown Midwest, couple marries and has children, couple begins to wish they lived in their favorite vacation spot, couple moves to Door County and strikes up a business, thus realizing the dream of living here a decade or two before retirement would otherwise allow. For Main […]
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As artists, John and Sally Guger see the world a bit differently from most people. For them, what might ordinarily be mundane becomes inspirational. They see the possibility for exploration in the comings and goings of everyday life. They take the time to see the possibilities in every detail. The Gugers, along with their children, […]
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The Harvest of 1945: German POW Camps Filled Door County’s Labor Shortage
During WWII, Door County’s orchards faced severe labor shortages. German Prisoners of War filled the gaps and saved a harvest.
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Door County League Baseball – A Local Tradition
The Door County League is an amateur baseball league made up of eight teams with contests held each Sunday at 1 :30 p.m., always beginning on Mother’s Day. Most estimate the level of competition is somewhere near or just a notch below Division III college baseball, with players ranging in age from about 14 to […]