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 […]

An article from the Door County Almanak, No. 1, 1982-83 Charles (Chick) Peterson is well-known throughout Door County and the Midwest for his watercolor paintings. His ability as a watercolorist is exceptional, as is his use of an unusually wide variety of subjects. While Chick enjoys painting all kinds of subjects, he says, “I find […]

An article from the Door County Almanak, No. 1, 1982-83 “What do you folks do up there in the wintertime?” Most of us who are lucky enough to live in Door County year-round have formulated a glib answer for the query by now. But in our privately candid moments many of us will admit that, […]

Alex and Emma Anderson and their two children, Ivan and Scione, lived in the “farm house that came to Sister Bay over the ice from Marinette,” as it was known locally. The 1875 farmhouse was dragged up the hill after arriving in the Little Sister area of the Green Bay waters in 1895. It stands where it was originally placed, just south of Sister Bay where Hwy 57 intersects with Fieldcrest Road and Country Lane.

Our family and many of our neighbors have been fishing commercially in Green Bay and Lake Michigan from the time they arrived in Northern Door. My father, Harlow Nelson, fished with his uncle Stanley Voight and the Johnson brothers out of Sand Bay around Spider Island.

Herman and Marcheta Steebs opened Herman’s Market the week before Christmas, 1956, after long weeks of scrubbing, painting, stocking shelves and praying for a good turnout at our grand opening A half page ad announcing the event had already been picked up by the genial John Kopitzke, owner of the Door Reminder, who by buying a nickel candy bar had inadvertently become our first customer.

A good friend, especially to my aunts, Gretna and Elaine, Robbie Kodanko was a Norwegian bachelor who was a farmer and a fisherman. He had a big laugh and it rang out loud, along with Al Johnson’s, at the counter in Al’s restaurant. This was a common place for locals to gather for a coffee break and a time to shoot the breeze. Elaine could keep up with the storytelling and jokes without even trying.