History

It is fifty years this summer since I first saw the Door Peninsula. I was then a student at the University of Wisconsin and thought that the Madison surroundings were about as beautiful as could be found anywhere. But that was before I had seen northern Door County...

Robert Steven Pohl (“Bob”), a well-known Ephraim businessman, was revered for his acute sense of humor and his outgoing personality. His career in publishing spanned over 40 years, with The La Grange Shopper, La Grange, IL., The Door Reminder in Sister Bay, and most recently with Door Guide Publishing as co-publisher of the “Door County Go Guide” and “Door County Dining Guide.” For Bob, business was entirely personal, and his route across the co...

Little more than one year ago, a gigantic presence passed away in this county: Axel (Al) Johnson, founder and owner of Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik in Sister Bay. Al was born on December 9, 1925 and died, with his entire family at his side, on June 12, 2010. No one better exemplifies the unusually generous spirit of Door County and its unique residents. Al was a loving father and husband; incredibly successful businessman; and true ...

According to Gills Rock commercial fisherman Jeff Weborg, “One of the biggest misconceptions of a commercial fisherman is that he’s rich simply because when you get a good lift everyone seems to know about it, and therefore assumes your making a lot of money, but what they don’t realize or hear about is all those times your out there and never get any fish; or you go out there and your nets are lost or ruined; or you blow an engine in your boat. ...

It’s in my blood… It is my way, An old fisherman once had said. Winds will blow, and seas will spray, This old lake gives to me my daily bread. In my sturdy boat upon the rolling deep, Where winds will blow and waves will break, Setting nets — for it is the fish I reap, Of ample harvests from the lake I take. I am a fisherman…it’s all I know, I live part on land and part at sea, Where waves will roll and winds will blow, There is n...

by Trygvie Jensen Over the last 150 years, the commercial fishery has dwindled to a mere shadow of what it once was. At the turn of the 20th century, Door County alone boasted over 400 fishermen, and was one of the main industries to many of the communities. All around the shores and lakeside communities the commercial fishery was important and a viable way of life. The late 1800s were better known as the expansive heyday for the fisheries. In...

by Trygvie Jensen Commercial fishing is one of the oldest professions known to man. The industry has survived for nearly two hundred years on the Great Lakes. Commercial fishermen are our living past, but confronting an uncertain future. They epitomize the American Dream: independent, ambitious, and hardworking. Not only are they fishermen, they are carpenters, navigators, electricians, mechanics, welders, among other things. As one commercial...