Door Peninsula
[2] 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.
[6] 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.
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.
[12] Careful study of certain Paleo-Indian artifacts from western Wisconsin suggests that they were made in the Door Peninsula and carried across the state.
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.
[18] There are competing claims to the landing site of French explorer Jean Nicolet in 1634, who was searching for a water route through North America to Asia: Horseshoe Island, which is part of Peninsula State Park, and Red Banks, which is about 7 miles north of what is now Green Bay.
[19] Nicolet is remembered in Wisconsin lore for having mistaken the Ho-Chunk Indians for Asians and celebrating, believing he had reached the Far East.
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[d] & 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 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!
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.In 1669, Claude-Jean Allouez also wintered with the Potawatomi.
[24] Six Jesuit rings marked with letters or symbols[27] and turquoise colored glass trade beads were found on Rock Island in remains left by Potowatomi, Odawa, and Huron-Peton-Odawa Native Americans during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Some Potawatomi as late as 1845 made sure to visit and gamble with the Menominee shortly after the periodic annuity payments were issued.
Even prior to their final emigration, many Potowatomis had periodically migrated into Canada to receive compensation related to their service on the British side during the War of 1812 and to pledge their continued loyalty.
[39][38] Potawatomi leader Simon Kahquados traveled to Washington, D.C. multiple times in an attempt to get the land back.
In 1906, Congress passed a law to establish a census of all Potawatomi formerly living in Wisconsin and Michigan as a first step toward compensation.
The 1907 "Wooster" roll, named after the clerk who compiled it, documented 457 Potawatomi living in Wisconsin and Michigan and 1423 in Ontario.
[45] In 1923, Michigan claimed ownership of Plum, Detroit, Washington, Hog, and Rock islands in Door County, although it did not take possession of them.
The more tourism-dominated northern part of the peninsula was acculturated from the professional and business classes of the tourists, while the more agriculture-dominated southern remained more rural in character.
[47] Due to economic, ethnic, and cultural differences between the northern and southern parts of the present-day Door County, arguments are sometimes started about the most appropriate place to draw the Door–Kewaunee line.
[48] A pit cave containing the skeletal remains of both present-day and pre-Columbian animals opens at the southern base of Brussels Hill.
Some are regularly filled by tilling or natural erosion, only to subside more due to meltwater or heavy rain.
It changes direction at Pensaukee,[70] north of Long Tail Point and continues northward to Sturgeon Bay.
Adults often lay eggs around docks and harbors along the peninsula, and most bays in the area have populations of brown trout.
In 2016 the Wisconsin state record for pinook (a hybrid of the pink and Chinook salmons) was set at a weight of 9 pounds, 1.6 ounces, and 27.87 inches.
[88] In 2014 the state speargun record for the invasive round goby was taken by out of Door County waters on the Lake Michigan side.
[85] Tagging studies have shown whitefish migrating from Big Bay de Noc which has less food to the plentiful waters off the peninsula.
[89] On five occasions from May through June 2017, researchers attempted to catch larval fish at the mouth of Sugar Creek using traps with green glowsticks as lures.
Within Door County, Brussels Hill, North Kangaroo Lake, Rock Island and the scarp face with its cool algific habitat supports populations of rare snails.
