What to Save in Door County

Let’s begin with the shape of the thumb
that angles gently out to deep water,
its harbors carved by waves hammering
from the west and slowly built by ridges
on the east. Then add the commonwealth
of parks where all species are free to play
together or apart. The limestone base
that gives us cherry and apple blossoms,
strawberries, potatoes and corn. Wetlands
for cranes and herons, cliffs for eagles,
woodlands for deer and all the small animals
insects and birds that keep our ecosystem clean.
Creeks, lakes, caves, pastures, sweeping vistas.
It took eons to make this rich configuration.

Then add the complex history of settlement
by Potawatomie, Menominee, Scandinavian,
and Icelandic people, French Missionaries,
Moravians, Belgians, Poles. Fishermen, farmers,
shipbuilders and captains, hoteliers, restaurateurs.
Their families brought quilting, rug-making, weaving
rosemaling. Fish boils. Fyr-bal Fest. Booyah.
Log structures gave way to red brick and stone,
then to clapboard houses, schools and barns
and we’ve kept these materials to be savored.

The Door also opened to art and thought,
made way for musicians, actors, dancers, painters,
potters, glass-blowers, landscape architects, poets.
The oldest continuous summer theater is here,
a famous folklore theater, a summer school
for young musicians, year-round continuing
education at Bjorklunden, The Clearing, the Tech,
The Crossroads at Big Creek, a community auditorium
to bring in talent from elsewhere, several presses,
five bookstores. A first-class diploma with little state aid.
How many small counties can claim such cultural richness?

We know it is not easy to secure the structures
that support this extra-ordinary place, make sure
the roads, bridges and beaches are safe, pollution
is controlled, taxes paid, emergency services in place.

But we, the beneficiaries of this land and water,
history, hard work and artistry, fine teachers and the good
will of citizens who volunteer for all the tasks that make
a great community, are grateful for their preservation,
and we offer heartfelt thanks for any move you make
to save the elements that give us this strong sense of home.