The Door Peninsula is a peninsula in eastern Wisconsin, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The peninsula includes northern Kewaunee County, northeastern Brown County, and the mainland portion of Door County. It is on the western side of the Niagara Escarpment. Well known for its cherry and apple orchards, the Door Peninsula is a popular tourism destination. With the 1881 completion of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the northern half of the peninsula became an island.Seeing The Light – Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Pierhead Light
Limestone outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment are visible on both shores of the peninsula, but are larger and more prominent on the Green Bay side as seen at the Bayshore Blufflands. Progressions of dunes have created much of the rest of the shoreline, especially on the east side. Flora along the shore demonstrate plant succession during periods of low lake levels. The middle of the peninsula is mostly flat. Beyond the peninsula's northern tip is a series of islands, the largest of which is Washington Island. The partially submerged ridge extends farther north, becoming the Garden Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.The Niagara Escarpment
History
Archaeology
Paleo-Indian artifacts have been found at two sites in the town of Union and two sites in the city of Sturgeon Bay. The Cardy and Salisbury Steak sites are located about a mile from each other in the south side of the city,Late Paleo-Indian Period Lithic Economies, Mobility, and Group Organization in Wisconsin by Ethan Adam Epstein, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, December 2016, location of the Cardy and Salisbury Steak sites: page 168 (page 182 of the pdf); use of the Boss Tavern and Heyrman I sites: page 161-2 (page 175-176 of the pdf); microwear analysis: page 169 (page 183 of the pdf); less mobility at Heyrman I site than the Boss Tavern site: pages 164 and 170 (pages 178 and 184 of the pdf); mobility of those at the Salisbury Steak site: page 168 (page 182 of the pdf); different travel routes: page 163 (page 177 of the pdf); Salisbury Steak site: page 168 (page 182 of the pdf); Door Peninsula stone carried elsewhere: pages 172–174 (pages 186–188 of the pdf) and the Heyrman I and Boss Tavern (or Fabry Creek) sites are a quarter-mile from each other along Highway 57 in the town of Union.Expecting the Unexpected: Archaeological Investigations at the Heyrman I Site (DR243), Door County,. Wisconsin by Toni A. Revane and John D. Richards, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee UWM Archaeological Research Laboratory, Historic Resource Management Services Report of Investigations No. 157, part of "Transportation Archaeology on the Door Peninsula: Progress and Prospects 1992 - 2004", page 10 (page 26 of the pdf) and Fabry Creek (Boss Tavern): A Multi-component Site, From First Americans to Euroamericans: Archeology and History of the Wis 57 Transportation Corridor, Wisconsin DOT and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee It is thought that the Boss Tavern site was used as a base camp, while the Heyrman I site was used as a workshop area for producing stone tools and possibly also as a very brief campsite. Both sites were occupied multiple times by Paleo-Indians.
A microwear analysis of the scraping tools found at the Boss Tavern site found that the tools had been used for butchering, skinning, and working with dry hides, and for scraping and smoothing wood. One scraping tool resembled an adze and was used to support the hypothesis that Paleo-Indians built watercraft.Findings Shake Theory on Early Residents\ Butchered Woolly Mammoth Bones in Southeastern Wisconsin Show People May Have Been Living Here Earlier Than Thought by Susanne Quick, Knight Ridder News Service Sep 17, 2003 A layer of sand was found at the Boss Tavern site, indicating it was a beach when lake levels were higher than they are today.Prehistoric agriculture in Wisconsin, Pioneer Press Wisconsin September 10, 2003
The tools and waste chips at the Heyrman I site suggest that the Paleo-Indians there may have been less mobile than those who resided at the Boss Tavern site. Additionally, they appear less mobile the Paleo-Indians at the Cardy Site, which primarily used Moline chertMidwest Archeological Conference, 49th Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, October 16–19, 2003, p. 26 (p. 27 of the pdf) from Illinois, and the group at the Salisbury Steak site, which used chert and sandstone from a variety of sources.
One possible explanation for why the two sites in the town of Union featured more local stone material than the Cardy site could be from their occupants using different travel routes. The Niagara Escarpment was a local source of material to make stone tools, and because the bluffs of the escarpment stretch across the western side of the peninsula, Paleo-Indians traveling on the Green Bay side would have come across it. It has been suggested that those living at the Cardy Site may have instead traveled on the east side of the peninsula away from the bluffs. They could have arrived at the Cardy Site from an area to the east of Lake Winnebago where other Moline chert artifacts have been found.
The Salisbury Steak site was used as a stone tool workshop, and appears to have been occupied later than the other three sites. The stone materials found at the site come from only a single occupation, and include local material, sandstone coming from the south or west, and chert from the Hudson Bay Lowlands in Canada. How they acquired Canadian stone is unknown, but they could have found it in a glacial deposit, traded for it, or migrated from the far north.
As of 2007, seven Clovis points have been found in Door County,A Survey of Wisconsin Fluted Points by Thomas J. Loebel, Current Research in the Pleistocene 24:118–119 and four Gainey points were found at the Cardy Site.Life During The End Of The Ice Age: The Cardy site could inform archaeologists about how humans dealt with a challenging environment. , American Archaeology Vol. 14, No. 3, Fall 2010Older than the Egyptian pyramids, stone tools found in Sturgeon Bay go on display by Liz Welter, Green Bay Press-Gazette Aug. 14, 2018 The relationship between Gainey points and the more ubiquitous Clovis points is being researched, but there are some similarities.Iowa's Archaeological Past by Lynn M. Alex, Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2000, p. 50
Careful study of certain Paleo-Indian artifacts from western Wisconsin suggests that they were made in the Door Peninsula and carried across the state.Sourcing of an Unidentified Chert from Western Wisconsin Paleo-Indian Assemblages by Eric Bailey, Journal of Undergraduate Research 5, p. 255–260 Paleo-Indian stone tools from made from stone sourced from the Door Peninsula or its immediate vicinity have been found as far west as in Trempealeau, La Crosse, Jackson, and Jackson, and Monroe counties and as far south as Dane County.
Archaeological evidence shows habitation of the peninsula and its islands by several different Native American groups. Artifacts from an ancient village site at Nicolet Bay Beach date to about 400 BC. This site was occupied by various cultures until about 1300 AD.
In 246 B.C (±25 years), a dog was buried in a Native American burial site on Washington Island. Analysis of Canis sp. remains recovered from the Richter Site (47DR80), a North Bay Phase Middle Woodland occupation on Washington Island, Wisconsin by Emily M. Epstein, Wisconsin Archaeologist, 2010
Etymology The name of the peninsula and the county comes from the name of a route between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Humans, whether Native Americans, early explorers, or American ship captains, have been well aware of the dangerous water passage that lies between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island, connecting the bay to the rest of Lake Michigan. It was named by the Native Americans and translated into French as Porte des Morts: in English, "Death's Door".
The earliest known written reference to this comes from a 1728 mention of "Cap a la Mort" ("Cape of Death") in French.Death's Door: The Pursuit of a Legend" by Conan Bryant Eaton, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin: Bayprint, 1980 revised edition, page 22 and Survey of Submerged Cultural Resources in Northern Door County by David J. Cooper, 1988 Field Season Report. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, page 52 (page 64 of the pdf)
The Menominee name for the peninsula was "Kenatao", meaning "cape".Romance of Wisconsin Place Names by Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, New York: October House, Inc. 1968, page 31
Potawatomi and Menominee
Before and during the 19th century, various Native Americans occupied the Door Peninsula and nearby islands. 17th-century French explorers made contact with various tribes in the area. In 1634, Jean Nicolet, the first European to visit what is now Wisconsin, is believed to have possibly landed at Rock IslandA Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat and Natural Areas Of Door County, Wisconsin, March, 2003, by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Sturgeon Bay Service Center, p. 128, p. 52, p. 23, p. 127 and pp. 52, 83, 85, and 99 (note: pagination in the pdf is one page past the numerical pagination) or Horseshoe Island, which is part of Peninsula State Park.
In 1665, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers spent the winter with the Potawatomi. Explaining his travels, Radisson reported thatVoyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, being an account of his travels and experiences among the North American Indians, from 1652 to 1684. by Radisson, Pierre Esprit, ca. 1636-1710, translated by Gideon Delaplaine Scull, Boston: The Prince Society, 1885
We embarked ourselves on the delightfullest lake of the world. I tooke notice of their Cottages & of the journeys of our navigation, for because that the country was so pleasant, so beautiful & fruitfull that it grieved me to see that the world could not discover such inticing countrys to live in. This I say because that the Europeans fight for a rock in the sea against one another, or for a sterill land and horrid country, that the people sent heere or there by the changement of the aire ingenders sicknesse and dies thereof. Contrarywise those kingdoms are so delicious & under so temperat a climat, plentifull of all things, the earth bringing foorth its fruit twice a yeare, the people live long & lusty & wise in their way. What conquest would that bee att litle or no cost; what laborinth of pleasure should millions of people have, instead that millions complaine of misery & poverty! What should not men reape out of the love of God in converting the souls heere, is more to be gained to heaven then what is by differences of nothing there, should not be so many dangers committed under the pretence of religion! Why so many thoesoever are hid from us by our owne faults, by our negligence, covetousnesse, & unbeliefe. It's true, I confesse, that the accesse is difficult, but must say that we are like the Cockscombs of Paris, when first they begin to have wings, imagining that the larks will fall in their mouths roasted; but we ought [to remember] that vertue is not acquired without labour & taking great paines.