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    Sturgeon Bay
    Sturgeon Bay
    Sturgeon Bay
    Ebook167 pages51 minutes

    Sturgeon Bay

    By Ann Jinkins, Maggie Weir and Door County Historical Museum

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    About this ebook

    Stretching midway across Wisconsin’s famous Door County peninsula, Sturgeon Bay has developed into the county’s business and industrial center. Divided by the waterway it’s named after, this small city provided a home to a working waterfront that once housed sawmills and docks for shipping ice, quarried stone, and, later, cherries. A canal dug from Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan in 1880 enabled ships to avoid the long passage over the tip of the peninsula. Sturgeon Bay became a shipbuilding capital, housing three major yards. The lively downtown districts on each side of the bay sported the typical hotels, taverns, stores, and blacksmith shops. Residents took pride in their newly formed schools, churches, and public services such as the Pioneer Fire Department. Families, fortunate to live in a land of great natural beauty, enjoyed recreational pursuits in the woods and on the water, whether it was perch fishing early on a summer morning or skating over the ice on a crisp winter afternoon.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439632888
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      Book preview

      Sturgeon Bay - Ann Jinkins

      1917

      INTRODUCTION

      The history of the city began when Oliver Perry Graham built the first log cabin on the east shore of Sturgeon Bay in 1850. Soon after, other settlers and their aspiring businesses started to mold the land surrounding the long bay that divides the Door Peninsula in half.

      At that time, the body of water was known as Big Sturgeon Bay, as opposed to Little Sturgeon Bay, which was a few miles to the south along Green Bay. The French explorer, Fr. Claude Allouez, who wintered with the Pottawatomie in 1676, was the first to write La Portage des Eturgeons, apparently referring to the plentiful sturgeon in the bay.

      Industries, using the abundant natural resources of the area, made their marks along the shores. Sawmills processed the bounty of the thick forests that grew in the vicinity of the future city. Their workers loaded schooners with pine, cedar, and hemlock for use in the growing cities of the developing midwest. A small community rose on each side of the bay to support the mills.

      At the same time, stone quarry operations began harvesting the native limestone that constitutes Door County’s bedrock. The market was ripe for stone needed in harbor improvements at many ports on Lake Michigan and later railroads and roads. In addition, clean, deep ice was cut from the waters of Sturgeon Bay and stored in huge icehouses until it could be shipped to meatpackers in Chicago and breweries in Milwaukee.

      The villages growing on the Sturgeon Bay shore were known by several names. In these early days of the 1850s, the east side was known as Graham, after the first settler. A common practice of the time was to name a village after an exotic place found in the news. The young village soon became known as Otumba, after a resident heard of an Aztec city in Mexico of that name. The west side was first known as Bay View, an accurate description of the village nestled along the shore. As post offices were established on both sides, the modern names were chosen. The east side became Sturgeon Bay, and the west side became Sawyer, named after Congressman Philetus Sawyer. Sawyer was annexed to the young City of Sturgeon Bay in 1894, creating one united city split in half by the bay.

      The year was 1873. The first shovels of dirt were scooped out of the cleared swath of land to make way for the ship canal. This engineering feat, which many felt was impossible, changed the course of history in Sturgeon Bay. Completed in 1882, the man-made waterway linked the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Suddenly, the long bay leading up to the canal became a major shipping passage. The success of the canal project boosted local industry and paved the way for new business endeavors.

      The lumber business waned as the county forests diminished. But with the beginning of the 20th century, a new industry took the sawmills’ place on the waterfront—shipbuilding. By 1907, three separate boatyards were repairing and building watercraft along the Sturgeon Bay shore. During World War II, all the shipyards were called into action. Workers flooded into the city to help with the wartime production of ships. The small city grew and strained under immense pressure to meet the demands of the war effort. The people of Sturgeon Bay met the challenge and felt pride for all they accomplished. When the war ended, the shipyards continued to flourish. They adjusted to build commercial, military, and luxury vessels for a peacetime economy. The remaining shipyards continue to provide an important role in the local economy and lend a unique maritime character to the city.

      As industry grew along the waterfront, an agricultural phenomenon was taking place on the land in and around Sturgeon Bay. Cherry trees were planted in record numbers after it was learned that the unique climate on the peninsula and mineral rich soils were suited to growing fruit. As the crop grew in size, packing plants sprang into operation. Some ingenious marketing by local promoters made Sturgeon Bay cherries famous throughout the nation. During the 1930s and 1940s, growing, picking, packing, and marketing were all a part of the heyday of the fruit industry that made a permanent mark on Sturgeon Bay.

      Although enterprising industrialists found business success, there is no doubt that the allure of our little city is tied to the spectacular splendor that surrounds us. Visitors have found the beauty of the shores and woodland in and around Sturgeon Bay to be a natural place of refuge for over 100 years. In the early days, they arrived by steamship, ready to vacation at one of the tourist hotels or waterfront resorts. Although the preferred mode of transportation is now the automobile, visitors continue to find a peaceful retreat in the charming, small city that lies on both sides of the long bay in the middle of the Door Peninsula.

      One

      BEGINNINGS

      This is an artist’s rendition of a bird’s-eye view of Sturgeon Bay in 1880. In just 30 years, the village had been transformed from a pine forest to the bustling county seat of Door County with its abundance

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