Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Thisgracefulcommunityoffersvisitorstheanticipatedcoffee-tablepictorials.Itmaybethe
soul, as it were, of the county, and yet it's also “just” another Door County village, with a
population right at 200.
sunset on Fish Creek
Arguably the most picturesque view in the county is along WIS 42 as it winds into the
village from a casual bluff. The official village history describes the town's situation suc-
cinctly: “with its back to a rock and its face to the sea.” A treasured stretch of road with a
few hairpin perils, a roller-coaster gut-lifter, and suddenly you're in a trim and tidy Victori-
an hamlet that could have come out of a Currier and Ives print. Fish Creek boasts the most
thoroughly maintained pre-20th-century architecture on the entire peninsula, about 40 his-
toric structures.
In 1844, trader Increase Claflin, the first non-native permanent settler in Door County,
leftSturgeonBayafterafewless-than-propitiousincidentswiththePotawatomiandwound
up here. About this time, an Eastern cooper afflicted with terminal wanderlust, Asa Thorp,
made his way to Door County searching for his fortune. With his two brothers, Thorp con-
