Wisconsin Hometown Stories

- In 1872, work began on clearing the land for a canal that would connect Sturgeon Bay with Lake Michigan.

The canal would create a big shortcut, reducing the need to travel around the peninsula, and through the Death's Door passage.

With the canal, Sturgeon Bay suddenly became a busy Lake Michigan and Green Bay port.

Schooners would tie together, and split the towing fee, in what became known as "a big tow."

The shipbuilding and ship repair industries expanded, and shoreline rock quarries now had a direct route to Lake Michigan markets.

With easier access, a new industry, tourism, began to take hold in Sturgeon Bay and the Green Bay side of the peninsula.

With almost 300 miles of shoreline, much of it considered worthless for farming, it was only a matter of time, before tourists began to discover the cool breezes and beauty of Door County.

In Fish Creek, dockmaster Asa Thorp, sold fuel to steamboats, and also ran a small boardinghouse.

- The lumbermen, the salesmen, anyone that came to the village, he would put up.

And soon, the people wanted to get off of the ship when they came into the village.

So as they were taking on new wood, they would walk up and down the streets, and people loved how cool it was, and how lovely this little village, and the air was clean, and it felt so good... And soon they started asking Asa if they couldn't stay in the boarding house.

I think he must have been a very ingenious guy, and that's the next thing he did.

He built a very fine hotel.

It just seem that that was the way the village was going to go, and so that the fishing and lumbering village of the late 1800s quickly became-- By 1905, 1910, people were building hotels.

They were already up.

- Just to the north, in Ephraim, village residents were amazed when a ship's passenger inquired about staying in the village overnight.

- And asked the dockmaster if there was someplace to stay.

He was told, "No, there were no hotels."

And he suggested that he might run down to the Widow Valentine's house, but he better hurry because the boat was going to leave and he'd be stuck if she said, "No."

She said, "Yes," and he stayed for a couple of days.

- And other villagers noticed that, "Wow, this is a source of money."

- That is when tourism became a thought in the minds of several people.

And after The Advocate published an article-- I believe this is what it said: Ephraim wants a good hotel, and tourists would be plenty.

And Fordel Hogenson, who was a Norwegian immigrant, decided that that would be what he would do.

He was a skilled carpenter, he was a captain of his own schooner, he also fished for a living, and made some money, he also did some lumbering.

Everybody did everything in those days, because they had to.

So he decided that he would add onto his house, and he added a little more, and a little more, until finally, he enough space for 80 people.

The bedrooms were minimal, chamber pots under the bed, but they served three meals a day, and every meal was wonderful.

- And others were adding onto their houses and permitting people to come and stay.

- Soon, new hotels began to spring up all around the peninsula, and Washington Island.

The Goodrich Transportation Company, began to bring in boatloads of tourists, running regular routes from Chicago and Milwaukee.

- And they used the large steamship, the Carolina .

And they had sleeping quarters, a big dining room.

It was really a nice ship.

This big Carolina would lumber in to the dock, and completely overpower the dock.

At the big event, of course, the captain would blow his siren coming around the bend, and villagers would drop what they were doing and rush down to the dock and see who was showing up, what they were wearing.

- And everybody would flock down to the dock, because someone interesting might be on the boat, or some thing that they had ordered might be on the boat, and maybe they wanted to ship something out on the boat.

Big excitement when the boats came in.

- But lots of people came.

And they'd stay two to three weeks, a long time.

Some stayed the whole summer.

And they were escaping the summer heat in Chicago, Milwaukee, and my wife's family's from St. Louis, and that's why they came up.

It was a place where people could come and lay back and relax and enjoy nature.

You went on picnics, you fished, you spent time on the water doing whatever, and enjoyed good meals at these hotels.

Those were really good times for those people.

And there were some very wealthy people who came up here.

And by 1921, there were 11 major, old-timey hotels in Ephraim.

On the American plan, all your meals were provided.

- Three meals a day for a lot of people; That's a lot of work.

And so, local people had to be hired, women in particular, who didn't have jobs.

People didn't hire women for anything in those days.

So, people who were known to be good cooks would be asked if they would help cook for the summer.

Other people would be asked if they could do housekeeping.

So the man of the family would take care of the outside work, and the ladies would take care of the inside.

There are some who say the women did it all.

The women really were the heart and soul of these old hotels.

Tillie Valentine ran the Anderson Hotel-- I mean really ran it.

Eugenia Smith at the Eagle Inn-- stern taskmaster.

Serena Olson at the Hillside, Augusta Olson at the Pine Grove.

They managed the place, they were cooks, greeted people, did the book-keeping, and managed the kitchen, and managed the help.

It was a big deal.

A lot of money flowed into Door County through tourism, and still does.

- How wonderful that there is such a thing as a tourist.

It gives all of us a livelihood.

(chuckling)