Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FishermenwerethefirsttooccupymostpointsalongtheLakeMichigancoast,including
Rock and Washington Islands. Some of the largest fish ever caught on Lake Michigan were
landed off Rock Island. Those communities, which also began commercial shipping and
shipbuilding, cemented the regional economy in the 1830s. In shipbuilding, Sturgeon Bay
always played second fiddle to Manitowoc farther south, but it still managed to parlay its
ship factories into one of the major facilities on Lake Michigan.
It'sthequintessentialweekendescape,yetmakeitalazy,spiritual-battery-rechargingweek,
which makes eminently more sense. If possible, try to schedule your arrival during the
preternaturally lovely blossom season (generally beginning in very late April or very early
May) or during an open-lighthouse period (generally concurrent with the blossoms). Just
remember that you need to book far in advance during these times (as well as summer and
holidays) The best time to visit is after Labor Day but before prime leaf-peeping season.
You'll get low prices, few people, and equal beauty.
Choose one place as a base of operations—
Sturgeon Bay,
for less driving time when
leaving,or
Fish Creek,
foritscentricityandbecauseit'ssodarncute.Thecountyisalsoset
up so that you go up one side and return along the other. (This author prefers to go up the
more congested bay side and return along the more subdued lake side.) And please, don't
forgo the somewhat forgotten county sibling—
Washington Island,
which itself leads to
must-see
Rock Island.
It's best to start at Sturgeon Bay, then travel to Egg Harbor/Fish Creek, Ephraim/Sister
Bay, Ellison Bay/Gills Rock, Washington Island/Rock Island, and Baileys Harbor, allotting
a day for each place, then return to Sturgeon Bay.
The anadromous leviathans for which Door County's gateway community is named once
crowded the harbor waters in such plenitude that ships would literally run aground atop
heaps of them.
WhetherornotSturgeonBayisproperlytheheartandsoulofthecounty,itliesatamost
strategic location: It was used for eons by Native Americans as a portage point. When the
6,600-foot-long canal was blasted, chiseled, hacked, and dug through to link the bay with
