Strengthening Local-History Promotion

Even in a county with hundreds of people who are committed to preserving local history, it’s difficult to think of anyone who’s more involved than Steven Rice. He previously worked as a curator at the Door County Historical Museum and was hired by the Door County Library System in 2019 as an archives researcher, with the goal of bringing all the Door County archives under the library’s umbrella. With that accomplished, he’s now archives manager for both the museum and the library. 

“I can’t get away from history,” he said, “and I’d never want to.”

For the past year, Rice has been working with Destination Door County to expand the definition of the county’s resources to include history. 

“I see differences in the ways tourism is starting to be thought about in the county,” Rice said. “Despite having at least 15 heritage organizations, I think we haven’t tapped into even 10% of what history and heritage tourism could do for the county.”

Rice lists the resources available, which include three outstanding museums; the Belgian Heritage Center in Brussels; the Alexander Noble House, maintained by the Gibraltar Historical Association; the Emma Toft House, home of the Baileys Harbor Historical Society; the Anderson Barn History Museum, maintained by the Ephraim Historical Foundation; the ever-growing Corner of the Past Museum, operated by the Sister Bay Historical Society; the 15-acre museum campus developed by the Liberty Grove Historical Society on the Ellison Bay Bluff; Heritage Village at Big Creek, maintained by the Door County Historical Society; and numerous other heritage groups not connected to a particular historical site.

“In so many places, it’s hard to get people interested in history,” he said. “That’s not a problem here. We have people all over the county who are passionate about history and eager to provide the time and resources to preserve it, but there’s a limit to what individual organizations can do.”

The individual groups have limited funds and staff, but if they’re all brought together, they could pool resources and draw more grant money, resources and experts. 

“I’d love to see an annual heritage symposium in the county, with everyone sharing the projects they’ve done and new ideas, building relationships and collaborating,” Rice said.

He’s on the steering committee for Recollection Wisconsin, a group that’s collecting digital photos and historical resources from around the state and making them available statewide and to the Digital Public Library of America. 

One of the projects the group is working on is an update of the brochure “Historical Door County,” published in 2017 by Heritage Alliance Door County. The brochure, financed by Destination Door County, will be larger and include maps of heritage sites throughout the county. It may also show the locations of all the buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and maybe even the 105 historical markers in the county.

“Everyone knows about Door County, but they really don’t know specifically what’s here,” Rice said. “We believe the new brochure will help to change that.”