Growing up in an artistic family, it’s no wonder Riley Bridenhagen followed suit. Surrounded by painting, photography, and overall creativity, the Bridenhagen family (Fred, Stacy, and sons Marshal and Riley) all offer something unique to the Door County art world. Most recently, Riley has created a series of beautiful leaf art like nothing you’ve seen, […]
Heritage and History: Enriching the Door Peninsula Experience
Cemetery and village walks. Chapel tours. Family history presentations. School reunions. Historic barn events. The creation of a traveling ‘Historymobile’ – it’s just a sampling of recent initiatives by local historic entities. While each historic group stands alone, they benefit from collaboration, and the Heritage Alliance of Door County (HADC) has been working to expand […]
Goose and Guns
(From the just-published book “Stories From Yesteryear” by Elaine Johnson. Available at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik in Sister Bay.) Author Elaine Johnson, 90 years old, founded Northern Lights Fish & Caviar with cousin Gretna Johns (d: 2014) in 1953. The partners purchased Rohde’s Grocery Store in 1966 (currently the location of Door County […]
Our Fascination with Lighthouses
Towers play an essential role in our nation’s maritime history. Active signal towers, watch towers, and light towers once dotted America’s coastlines, including Lake Michigan. These historic maritime structures continue to fascinate, and those that are still standing are treasured popular visitor destinations. But why? The best known of the historic maritime towers is the […]
Door County Dreamin’ – Life at the Cottage
Our family reunites annually at the family cottage on Lily Bay, close to Sturgeon Bay. We enjoy seeing the ‘cottage’ almost as much as seeing our family. Built in the 1920s, it has been in my father’s family for over 60 years. We spent all of our summer vacations there: fishing, playing cards, picking cherries, […]
The Living Past: Commercial Fishing in Door County
The Living Past: Commercial Fishing in Door County 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. […]
THE WRITER’S LIFE – Roadside Gardens, Birdfeeders, Wind Chimes…Silence
THE WRITER’S LIFE Roadside Gardens, Birdfeeders, Wind Chimes…Silence -By Norbert Blei Though I’ve never been much of a gardener, flower or vegetable, I appreciate their presence in my midst, whether from a distance or visiting friends with flower gardens glowing in color throughout the seasons, not to mention gifts from vegetable gardens–asparagus, beans, spinach, lettuce, […]
A Fifty-Year Reminiscense
A Fifty-Year Reminiscense By Hjalmar R. Holand (Abridged version of an essay written by author H. R. Holand in 1948…remembering Door County as it was in 1898.) 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 […]
North of the Tension Line
North of the Tension Line Musings about Washington Island by musician Julian Hagen It’s just a different pace. When you get on the boat at Northport, a weight is just lifted off your shoulders. North of the Tension Line is what they call this place. And there’s something about when you get on that boat, […]