Door County Almanak, No. 2, 1985 Door County folks are a varied lot, but one common trait is an appreciation for the outdoors – an affinity for green, growing things. My enthusiasm often leads me to a feeling of wild infatuation with whatever plant is currently in bloom, from hepatica and bloodroot on through lilacs, […]

Door County Almanak, No. 5, 1990 As I reach the Labor Day of my life, I think back on all the summers I have spent in Door County and of the tremendous effect these golden seasons have had on my life. In sorting out these recollections, probably the most potent and pervading influence comes from […]

Door County Almanak, No. 5, 1990 Evening shadows were lengthening. Although the sky was still bright blue over the bay, the dense woods surrounding the dirt road leading from Birchwood Hall into Sister Bay kept the sun’s rays at bay. Mamie Hedeen shivered as she hurried along the rough stony trail. It was too dark […]

Door County Almanak, No. 5, 1990 During the years that our children were growing up, every disagreement between parents and their offspring was blamed on the “generation gap.” In our family, the most evident sign of that so-called gap was the aversion our five had to the Sunday drive. Growing up in a home with […]

Door County Almanak, No. 2, 1985 The shape of the conversation remains the same. Its timing varies only slightly from year to year, beginning as an offhand remark in mid-summer, by September swelling in proportions like an apple tree loaded with fruit, then dropping off gradually, like windfalls, through the autumn. It is heard in […]

Door County Almanak, No. 2, 1985 When were the first cherries processed in Door County? By what company? Who headed the processing operation? Fortunately, the man who can answer those questions with authority is still living. Capt. Edward S. Reynolds, now 93 years old, organized Company F, of the Thirty Second Division of the U.S. […]

Ellison Bay’s first and only meat market was built in 1908 by Gilbert Wickman, an enterprising young man only 21 years old at the time. Gilbert purchased the lot from Simon Evanson. Later, his brother-in-law Anton Anderson helped Gilbert build living quarters on the site, located at 12020 Lakeview Rd. in Ellison Bay, a highly […]

Door County Almanak, No. 3, 1986 Although the age of steam was well launched on the Great Lakes by 1818, the revolution made possible by steam power did not reach the northern islands of Lake Michigan until half a decade after the Civil War. The fishermen of Washington Island were leaders in the conversion from […]

Door County Almanak, No. 2, Orchards, 1985 They almost killed the golden goose when they clear-cut the pine and milled the remaining hardwoods. The somewhat alkaline and shallow soil that topped the Niagara Reef in Door County was poor farmland. But it could grow trees. Someone found that fruit trees liked the limestone, and dooryard […]