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Category: Features

  • Great Northern Construction

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    Technically, Tom Birmingham is not native to northern Door County, as he was a month old when his parents moved to Fish Creek from Janesville. But the networking that resulted from a lifetime on the peninsula, especially as he married a local girl, proved valuable when he pursued a career in building.

  • UPDATE: Coast Guard Still Working to Raise Tug

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    The United States Coast Guard continued to work with McMullen and Pitz Marine Contractors Tuesday morning to raise the tug Dauntless from the icy waters near the Egg Harbor marina.

  • Tug Sinks at Egg Harbor Marina

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    A tug being used by McMullen & Pitz Marine Contractors, a subcontractor working on the Egg Harbor marina reconstruction project, sunk overnight in about 12 feet of water.

  • The Christmas Bird Count

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    A statement used in advertising in the past, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” could apply very appropriately to the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) which has become so popular throughout this continent over the past 109 years.

  • The Evergreen Ferns

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    Ever since I began learning to be a teacher in 1949, I’ve had the nagging compulsion to want to know the name of every plant, animal, bird, insect, stone, fossil, etc.

  • Ottman Fir Farm

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    “Selling Christmas trees,” Herb Ottman exclaimed, “is a disease!” “It’s like being on drugs,” his son Steve said. “Once you start, you can’t stop!” Steve’s brother Ken laughed and nodded, but then added, “It’s a family tradition.

  • Door County YMCA is All About Community

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    In 1992, I took my first class at the Door County YMCA. It was quite an endeavor:  waking up early in the winter dark, driving from my Egg Harbor home to Sturgeon Bay, and making my way to the old high school where, after decades of teachers yelling, “Don’t run in the halls,” Y instructors […]

  • Still Throwin’ Rocks

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    Fifty years ago, the late Earl “The Pearl” Willems decided that folks in Sister Bay needed a winter attraction, so he spent $75,000 converting a dance hall into a bowling alley.

  • Vagabonds

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    As most Door County residents prepare for the long haul of winter, Nick Steingart is packing his bags and eyeing up the space in the back of his white 1998 Volvo wagon parked in the mud behind his small shack of an apartment in Ephraim.

  • Generation Gap

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    When the Independence Day parade rolls through Baileys Harbor and Egg Harbor every 4th of July, a handful of aging veterans march in disciplined order, reminding us of the meaning behind the celebration.

  • Local ID Sting Results Disappointing

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    Door County convenience stores didn’t fare well when the Door County Sheriff’s Department tested whether clerks are checking for identification when selling alcohol.

  • Adventures in Fear

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    Some people might be content with the spookiness of a haunted house. But others like to have the bejesus scared out of them in an adventure taking them not only through a frightening mansion but into a scary neighborhood as well.

  • Before the YMCA

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    Stop into the Door County YMCA in Fish Creek just after the Gibraltar school day ends, about 3:30 pm. Watch the backpacks pile up by the front door, and the kids scurry off in all directions to the gym, to dance class, or to the pool.

  • The Small School Experience in Northern Door: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

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    The rural school experience is an important part of Americana, the belief that the one-room school in many respects was best. But advocates of a large-school education will point to broader academic curricula, expanded extracurricular choices, better educational facilities, and options for exceptional students to achieve at higher levels. People living in northern Door County, […]

  • Where All the Beauty Is: Aviation in Door County

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    Door County first built a reputation for itself around its abundant coastline and thriving maritime industry, at a time when many visitors to the peninsula arrived by boat. Now, thousands of people visit Door County each year, most arriving on a set of wheels (cars, campers) and using other sets of wheels (bicycles, motorcycles) to […]

  • An Unwanted Visitor

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    Door County residents are known for their hospitality, giving up their time and home each summer to thousands of visitors. This summer, however, people across the Door Peninsula are trying to keep one visitor out.

  • Busy as a Bumblebee

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  • More Than A Job: Al Johnson’s employees celebrate 60 years of family and friendship

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    To most people, it’s the restaurant with the goats on the roof, but to thousands of current and past employees, it’s family.
    A family of perhaps a couple thousand tied by a bond that can only be created when people are buried by a vast sea of customers, questions repeated millions of times, and pancake orders shouted into a kitchen and recorded only in the minds of swamped cooks.

  • Kitchen Fire Closes JJ’s in Sister Bay

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    One of Door County’s most popular restaurants is closed today after a fire charred the kitchen of JJ’s La Puerta in Sister Bay at 6:55 am.

    “The smoke alarm went off and I woke up to black smoke coming up through the floor,” said John Young, a JJ’s employee who lives in an apartment above the restaurant.

  • One Last Time?

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    The Village of Egg Harbor will take another crack at approving a plan for its marina when it invites voters to the polls again for a referendum July 28.