Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and thus to the Fox and Wisconsin Riverways. Purportedly, Jean Nicolet himself was the
first European to set up camp on Washington Island. Pierre Esprit Radisson, who wintered
here with the Huron, dubbed it the most pleasant place he had experienced in the Great
Lakes. The most famous European presence still lends itself to the murky legends swirling
in the cruel straits. In 1679, Robert La Salle sailed the
Griffin
into Detroit Harbor, where
he met and bartered fur and iron wares with the Potawatomi and then left, destined for
Mackinac Island. The ship vanished, and mariners have regaled the gullible with stories of
a shrouded ship matching its description haunting the shoals around the Door ever since.
A large-scale European presence appeared in the early 1830s, when immigrants into
Green Bay heard of trout the size of calves being taken from the waters around the island.
The first fishers were Irish, but the true habitation mark on Washington Island is pure
Icelandic—the richest in the United States. Several thousand of the nation's first Icelandic
settlers arrived, took readily to the isolation, and set down permanent roots. Their heritage
is clearly manifest in the
stavkirke
—the wooded stave church—being built gradually by
island residents, one massive white pine log at a time, and by the proud Icelandic horses
roaming certain island pastures.
Sights
There is a lighthouse on Washington Island, the
Bowyer Bluff light
on the northwest side.
Unfortunately,youcan'tvisitit,butyoumaywishyoucould—at210feet,it'sthetalleston
the Great Lakes.
