Local, Native, Tourist, or Transplant? Take our Door County Local Quiz

Freddie Kodanko, Door County’s Polka King. Photo courtesy of the AC Tap.

While writer Myles Dannhausen Jr.’s research confirmed that there’s no single answer to what makes someone a Northern Door local, he did get some ideas for some questions you might ask to test someone’s local credentials.

Here’s a 20-question quiz made up of suggestions from a bunch of locals, a few transplants, and the Door County Living staff. What’s your score?

1. What do locals call the intersection where County F and Maple Grove Road meet?
2. Why do locals look forward to November 1st?
3. What does “Grudge” refer to?
4. Who is the man also known as Coyote?
5. What is a Norzwich and where do you get one?
6. Where is the Overseas Open held?
7. Where is someone going if they say they’re “heading into town?”
8. How do you pronounce the name of Wisconsin’s only dry municipality?
9. Which bar claims to have been the only establishment in the county to legally serve alcohol through Prohibition?
10. What building was once home to Johnny’s Cottage Restaurant?
11. Who coached a team full of “terminal dinks” to the Wisconsin state baseball championship in 1979?
12. Who gave Al Johnson his first goat, leading to the famous tradition of the goats on the roof?
13. Who was the Polka King and what did he drive?
14. What might old-timers call the building that is now Moretti’s in Sister Bay?
15. Who was a potter before he opened the Alibi Restaurant in Fish Creek?
16. If you order a fresh lawyer what are you asking for?
17. What was the previous name of the Bayside Tavern?
18. Where was the original Bunda’s Department Store located?
19. Who was Door County’s longest-serving sheriff (from 1962 to 1982), and who was the only person who interrupted his tenure from 1966 to 1968?
20. What 100-year-old building used to house the local laundry in Baileys Harbor?

Looking for a good debate, an interesting explanation or a few laughs? Try asking a “local” one of these questions:

• Where can you find a fryer key or a bucket of steam?
• How do you pronounce Fish Creek?
• Do you prefer beaches with sand or rocks?
• What do you do here in the winter?

The Answers

1. BS Corners
2. The speed limit through Ephraim increases to 35 miles per hour through the village and 45 miles per hour on the southern and northern stretches of Highway 42.
3. The Door County League baseball rivalry between the Baileys Harbor A’s and the Sister Bay Bays
4. Norb Blei
5. A sandwich from the Fish Creek Market, formerly the Fish Creek General Store owned by Ann and Geri Norz
6. Deer Run Golf Course on Washington Island
7. Sturgeon Bay
8. Ephraim is pronounced EE-fruhm
9. Nelsen’s Hall Bitter’s Pub & Restaurant
10. Sister Bay Cafe
11. Rod “Chief” Billerbeck
12. Wink Larson
13. Freddie Kodanko, who drove a tractor
14. Salty Joe’s Fish Shack
15. James “JJ” Johnson
16. A slimy, cod-like fish
17. Bill’s Bar
18. The current On Deck store near the intersection of Highway 42 and 57 in Sister Bay
19. Hollis “Baldy” Bridenhagen. His wife, Gloria, served as sheriff for two years when Baldy had to step down to undersheriff because of term limits.
20. The current home of Door County Living located at 8142 Highway 57

How do you rate?

0 correct:  Have you even been to Door County?

1 to 5 correct:  You’re probably a tourist.

6 to 10 correct:  You need to make some more local friends and dig into the archives of Door County Living and the Peninsula Pulse.

11 to 13:  You’re likely a transplant making your way up the local ladder.

14 to 16 correct:  Spend some time at Al’s breakfast counter and read Norb Blei’s Door Way, and you’re on your way to local status (in some eyes anyway).

17 to 19 correct:  Chances are you’re a local and were probably born here.

Perfect 20:  Your parents were probably born here and so were you.