The Door Peninsula is about half way up the eastern side of Wisconsin. On one side is Lake Michigan and the other side is Green Bay - the body of water. The city of Green Bay is near the bottom of the Peninsula. The “Door” name comes from early French explorers who adopted the name used by the local Indians. It relates to the treacherous waters at the tip of the Peninsula where the Bay and the Lake meet. That passage was called “Deaths Door”. Over the centuries it has lived up to its name with many ship wrecks in the area.
We came hoping to find cool weather for the summer, and we have been blessed. The majority of the days have been in the mid 70s with night time lows in the mid 50’s to low 60’s. The surface of Lake Michigan is currently about 62 degrees which is 10 degrees or so cooler than Green Bay. That seems to moderate the temperature and to cause regular winds to blow across the Peninsula from the cooler Lake surface.
We are in a nice campground with very friendly owners and workers. Many folks from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota come here year after year for several weeks or months in the summer. The area is very popular for fishermen. I kept seeing folks with huge fish down in the harbor using the city provided cleaning station. They had fish that looked 3 or 4 feet long. I finally got into a conversation with a man at the campground who has been coming here for 29 years from Minnesota to fish each summer. He explained the big fish are King Salmon. The states around the Lake started stocking the Lake with the King Salmon back in the 60’s or 70’s. Formerly the big fish were Lake Trout. But apparently these were decimated by non-native lamprey eels that were inadvertently brought into the Lake by ships that had crossed the oceans from other places. Likewise there was another 5 or 6 inch sized non-native fish introduced into the Lake in the same manner. These fish exploded in population when the Lake Trout declined. Apparently at times thousands of the small fish would die and wash up on shore. So the states introduced the King Salmon as a new predator. This has worked wonderfully but with some ups and downs. A few years after the introduction, people were catching gigantic King Salmon well in excess of 25 pounds. Then the salmon ate all or the majority of the smaller problem fish. That caused the Salmon population to drop way off, and their size decreased significantly. So all the states reached agreements to reduce the amount of Salmon introduced into the Lakes. Now the King Salmon are back to a larger size and more stable population, although not as larger as those first years. Still what I have been seeing look plenty large. Every time I have been down to the harbor, I have seen a number of folks with what appear to be the max limit of 5 fish. The man I talked with says the Salmon he is catching average 15 to 20 pounds. Plus I have seen others with a somewhat smaller fish that looks more comparable to a large bass. I’ve been told these are rainbow trout. So if you like to fish, this is a great place place to come.
While here I have worked on a few RV projects. One was to install a mud flap on the rear of the RV that goes all the way across the width of the coach. As is typical for me, that turned out to be more difficult than expected. I got to be very well know in the local hardware store going back 4 or 5 times for different nuts, bolts, chain, etc. That is why I was at the harbor seeing the fishermen so much. The hardware store sits next to the harbor dock. It was a fun place to visit being an ole time hardware/general store that has been in business in the same building since 1945. It is one of those "if they don’t have it , you don’t need it" type of places.
There are many great places to visit here. So far we have toured a light house, a Marine Museum, a small chapel build in an ancient Norse style, several beautiful state and county parks and have ridden or walked through several of the small harbor villages. Each week we go down to Sturgeon Bay, which is the largest city and is about half way up the Peninsula. We go down so I can take my weekly allergy shot, wash clothes and go to the grocery store. Sturgeon Bay is also a very nice city. We especially enjoyed lunch at an Applebeees restaurtant that sits right on the canal that connects Strugeon Bay and Green Bay with Lake Michigan. This canal was built I believe in the late 1800's or early 1900's. It cut off 3 days from the trip around the tip of the Peninsula for ships carrying iorn ore from the Michigan Upper Peninsula to Chicago, and other points on the southern end of Lake Michigan.
Sturgeon Bay:
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| From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI |
We also attended a portion of the Wisconsin Kountry Klub Chapter Rally in a nearby campground. Once again we had a great time with the Wisconsin folks. They made us feel very welcome. One night we joined them for a fish boil, a local tradition.
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| From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI |
I was not so sure how much I would enjoy this, but the food turned out to be very good. They boil locally caught whitefish, potatoes, and onions in a large pot under a wood fire. At the end they throw kerosene or something similar on the fire to make it flame way up and boil over. This boils off the excess grease, I assume from the fish. It makes for a good show.
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| From 7-08 Door Peninsula, WI |
Oh, and the tradition requires that the meal be finished off with a piece of cherry pie. Naturally I especially enjoyed that part. One of the reasons for the cherry pie is that this area is known for its excellent cherries. We had been looking forward to buying some fresh ones at harvest time in late July. However about 98% of the crop was destroyed by a late freeze in the spring. What a shame for the local farmers.
Perhaps the most interesting place so far has been the small "Norse" chapel. It was built from 1939 to 1947 by a couple from Chicago who owned a large tract of land with a summer home on the Peninsula which they named Bjorklunden.
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| From 7-08 Baileys Harbor, WI - Bjorklunden |
During the early part of World War II, they felt called to build a chapel of peace. They had especially liked churches they had seen in Norway. While Christian, these still have some old Norse features like dragons carved into various points around the church. We are told there are 53 dragons or dragon heads in this small chapel.
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| From 7-08 Baileys Harbor, WI - Bjorklunden |
The couple took carving lessons during the winters in Chicago and carved all the features themselves. It was interesting to see how their skill improved over the years.
One of the first carvings:
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| From 7-08 Baileys Harbor, WI - Bjorklunden |
One of the final carvings:
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| From 7-08 Baileys Harbor, WI - Bjorklunden |
Then the wife who was already a painter, learned to do fresco and painted frescoes on all the interior walls.
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| From 7-08 Baileys Harbor, WI - Bjorklunden |
It really is an amazing structure to visit. The couple donated the property to Lawrence University, a small school in Wisconsin. In addition to the chapel Bjorklunden now has a beautiful building for summer retreats and unique week long adult education courses.
I will follow this with at least one more update from here before we leave. We will stay here for the whole month of July. Then we will move further north to Eagle River, Wisconsin for a week and then head into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for about 4 weeks
