In a cedar and pine forest on Lake Michigan, moments of illumination fly around like sparks off a campfire. The best way to capture sunrise on film. Handy techniques for depicting shadow in watercolors. How to harness the power of the inner eye. At the Clearing in Door County, everything becomes clearer.
Go to story ...Once, evening entertainment in Door County consisted of watching the sun set over Green Bay. Then, at the turn of the century, the seven sons of the Eagle Bluff lighthouse keepers formed a band to entertain at various gatherings, arriving with a horse-drawn piano. The arts scene really got going in 1935, when the first theater was founded on the lawn of a Fish Creek motel.
Go to story ...In Wisconsin, the American dream came true for a penniless boy from Iceland — and the rest of us made out pretty well, too. The youngster's schooling stopped in second grade as the family moved to farms in Wisconsin and North Dakota, then resumed when the boy — called Chester — joined his married sister in Chicago and, at age 18, entered the fourth grade.
Go to story ...Goldthread and gaywings. Bogbean and trailing arbutus. In Wisconsin's Door County, it's enough to make a naturalist hyperventilate. Cherry blossoms and daffodils are the showiest spring flowers on this tourist playground between Lake Michigan and Green Bay. But it's the wildflowers, many of them rare, that provide the most joyous proof that spring has arrived. On sandy ridges, the first flower spotted often is the once-common trailing arbutus, whose waxy white blossoms emerge in April.
Go to story ...For most tourists, Egg Harbor is the "first" village on the Door Peninsula. After crossing the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, they drive 17 miles past orchards and fields before they get another glimpse of water. Now, visitors see something else first: giant eggs. Artist-decorated eggs line roads and adorn parks to mark a village anniversary — and give tourists something to look at.
Go to story ...Sister Bay is all about the water. And Swedish pancakes. And goats.
Go to story ...Every May, wildflower followers find their way to Baileys Harbor. They walk past two 1870 range lights on a boardwalk lined by endangered dwarf lake iris. On strips of wetland called swales, they look for bogbean and goldthread. In June, they search for 25 species of orchids. The land Ridges Sanctuary occupies almost became a trailer park. Now, it's habitat for more species of plants than any other place in Wisconsin.
Go to story ...It would be natural, for a tourist, to arrive in Sturgeon Bay and just keep going. It would also be a mistake. The rest of Door County has all the tourist trappings. But Sturgeon Bay has appeal of its own. "Most people want to go farther up on Door County, for all the shops and such," says Bill Munroe, a volunteer at the Door County Maritime Museum. "But this is a working town. We like it down here. We like it very much."
Go to story ...If you think it's expensive to stay in Wisconsin's Door County, you haven't looked very hard. In early June, rates can be almost ludicrously low, cheaper than a Super 8. And even on weekends in July and August, it's not hard to find a decent place for $100 or less if you book in advance. The Door Peninsula's breezy beaches are the place to be when the rest of the region is sweltering. During one early June heat wave, temperatures there were 20 to 40 degrees lower, and lodging rates were low, too — I got three nights for the price of two.
Go to story ...Around the Upper Midwest, Door County is the tourist destination that other tourist destinations envy. Everything a tourist loves, it's got: Lighthouses and sand dunes. Wineries and boutiques.
Go to story ...It's known as Door County's shopping town, and if people think that's too much of a good thing — well, they're in the minority, judging by throngs on the streets. It's also the gateway to the wildly popular Peninsula State Park. This big park is more like a resort, with a beach, boat rentals, playgrounds, tennis court and golf course, plus a theater, lighthouse, bike trails and one of the state's best-known hiking trails.
Go to story ...Fish boils, cherry pie, chic shops and a nonstop stream of tourists. Yes, that's Door County, all right. But so is this: Secluded beaches of fine white sand. Estuaries lined with herons. Hiking and bicycle trails winding through sun-dappled cedar forests.
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