Door County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Its population was 30,066 at the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Sturgeon Bay, with a population of 9,646.
Door County is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. This dangerous passage, known as Death's Door, contains shipwrecks and was known to Native Americans and early French explorers. The county was created in 1851 and organized in 1861.
Nicknamed the "Cape Cod of the Midwest," Door County is a popular Upper Midwest vacation destination. Tourism is a major contributor to Door County's economy. It is Wisconsin's forty-fourth largest county in population, but it is the eighth largest in terms of economic impact from tourism (over $600 million in 2023). The county is considered a high-recreation retirement destination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
History
Native Americans and French
Door County's name came from Porte des Morts ("Death's Door"), the passage between the tip of Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The name "Death's Door" came from Native American tales, heard by early French explorers and published in greatly embellished form by Hjalmar Holand, which described a failed raid by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) tribe to capture Washington Island from the rival Potawatomi tribe in the early 1600s. It has become associated with shipwrecks within the passage. The earliest known written reference to the legend is from , who termed the peninsula "Cap a la Mort" in 1728.
Development
The 19th and 20th centuries saw the immigration and settlement of pioneers, mariners, fishermen, loggers, and farmers. The first white settler was Increase Claflin. In 1851, Door County was separated from what had been Brown County. In 1853, Moravians founded Ephraim after Nils Otto Tank resisted attempts at land ownership reform at the old religious colony near Green Bay. An African-American community and congregation worshiping at West Harbor on Washington Island was described in 1854. Also in 1854 the first post office in the county opened, on Washington Island. In the 19th century, a fairly large-scale immigration of Belgian Walloons populated a small region in the southern portion of the county, including the area designated as the Namur Historic District. They built small roadside votive chapels, some still in use today, and brought other traditions over from Europe such as the Kermiss harvest festival. See also the Table of Contents for the entire book.
Shortly after the 1831 Treaty of Washington, the federal government surveyed what is now Door County to determine the value of the timber and to divide up parcels for eventual sale. Following the treaty, land in what is now the county was sold or granted to private citizens.
At the time the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed, most of the county's nearly 2,000 farmers were squatters earning most of their revenue from lumber and wood products. The remaining portion of the population consisted of about 1,000 fishermen and their families. Out of the total population of 2,948 people, 170 fought in the Civil War.
When the 1871 Peshtigo fire burned the town of Williamsonville, fifty-nine people were killed. The area of this disaster is now Tornado Memorial County Park, named for a fire whirl which occurred there. kiosk historical notes, also see Altogether, 128 people in the county perished in the Peshtigo fire. and
In 1885 or 1886, what is now the Coast Guard Station was established at Sturgeon Bay. The small, seasonally open station on Washington Island was established in 1902.
Tourism
Even after the Ahnapee and Western extended service to Sturgeon Bay in 1894, many tourists continued taking the railroad to Menominee, Michigan to embark on steamships bound for communities in Door County. This route over Green Bay bypassed poor road conditions in the northern part of the county, which persisted until the early 1920s. Only after crushed stone highways were built did motor and horse-drawn coaches become popular for transportation between Sturgeon Bay and the northern part of the peninsula.. By 1909 at least 1,000 tourists visited per year, a figure which grew to about 125,000 in 1920, 1 million in 1969, 1.25 million in 1978, and 1.9 million in 1995.
In 1913, The Old Rugged Cross was first sung at the Friends Church in Sturgeon Bay as a duet by two traveling preachers.
In 2004, the county began a sister cities relationship with Jingdezhen in southeastern China.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (80%) is water. It is the largest county in Wisconsin by total area. The county has of shoreline.
The county covers the majority of the Door Peninsula. With the completion of the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal in 1881, the northern half of the peninsula became an artificial island. This canal is believed to have somehow "caused a wonderful increase in the quantity of fish" in nearby waters and also caused a reduction in the sturgeon population in the bay due to changes in the aquatic habitat. The 45th parallel north bisects the "island", and this is commemorated by Meridian County Park.
Climate
The county has a humid continental climate (classified as Dfb in Köppen) with warm summers and cold snowy winters. Data from the Peninsular Agricultural Research Station north of the city of Sturgeon Bay gives average monthly temperatures ranging from in the summer down to in the winter. The moderating effects of nearby bodies of water reduce the likelihood of damaging late spring freezes. Late spring freezes are less likely to occur than in nearby areas, and when they do occur, they tend not to be as severe. Also see maps on pp. 15 and 29.
Demographics
Population structures, 1930–2010
Racial and ethnic composition +Door County, Wisconsin – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)24,64225,28727,22826,48327,52498.45%98.43%97.38%95.31%91.55%Black or African American alone (NH)3628491391400.14%0.11%0.18%0.50%0.47%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1721741741421220.69%0.68%0.62%0.51%0.41%Asian alone (NH)4947801121360.20%0.18%0.29%0.40%0.45%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census340xx0.01%0.01%0.00%Other race alone (NH)0127760.00%0.00%0.01%0.03%0.25%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census158227930xx0.57%0.82%3.09%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1301532676711,1380.52%0.60%0.95%2.41%3.79%Total25,02925,69027,96127,78530,066 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 30,066. The median age was 54.5 years. 15.8% of residents were under the age of 18 and 31.5% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.1 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 92.3% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 1.6% from some other race, and 4.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 3.8% of the population.
31.4% of residents lived in urban areas, while 68.6% lived in rural areas.
There were 13,989 households in the county, of which 18.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 52.9% were married-couple households, 17.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 22.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 23,738 housing units, of which 41.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 77.4% were owner-occupied and 22.6% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.5%.
2000 census As of the 2000 census, there were 27,961 people, 11,828 households, and 7,995 families residing in the county. The population density was .Wisconsin: 2000 Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, November 2002, US Census Bureau, page 449 (page 462 of the pdf) (Archived January 19, 2022) There were 19,587 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.84% White, 0.19% Black or African American, 0.65% Native American, 0.29% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.33% from other races, and 0.69% from two or more races. 0.95% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 39.4% were of German and 10.3% Belgian ancestry. A small pocket of Walloon speakers forms the only Walloon-language region outside of Wallonia and its immediate neighbors.A Forgotten Language Sparks A Love To Remember by Zac Schultz, December 24, 2015, Wisconsin Life, PBS."Belgian-American Research Collection" , University of Wisconsin and Quantity-to-Quality Contrast Shift and Phonemic Merger in Wisconsin Walloon High Front Vowels by Kelly Biers and Ellen Osterhaus, Selected Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas (WILA 9), ed. Kelly Biers and Joshua R. Brown, 11-19. Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Out of a total of 11,828 households, 58.10% were married couples living together, 6.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.40% were non-families. 28.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.84.Wisconsin: 2000 Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, November 2002, US Census Bureau, page 267 (page 280 of the pdf) (Archived January 19, 2022)
For every 100 females there were 97.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.50 males. 22.10% of the population was under the age of 18,Wisconsin: 2000 Summary Population and Housing Characteristics, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, November 2002, US Census Bureau, pages 10–11 (pages 23–24 of the pdf) a decrease from 25.9% being under the age of 18 in the 1990 census.Table 1. Summary of General Characteristics of Persons: 1990, p. 20 of the pdf) Additionally, 6.10% were aged from 18 to 24, 25.40% from 25 to 44, and 27.70% from 45 to 64.
Crime In 2020, there were 208 felony cases prosecuted by the county, up from 195 cases in 2019 and 171 in 2018. No trials were held concerning any of the felony cases in 2020. In 2019, 3 cases went to trial, down from 6 in 2018.
The county has been a focus of sex-trafficking enforcement efforts. From 2015 to 2020 there were no reports of sex-trafficking in the county.
In 2014, the voluntary intoxication defense in Wisconsin was repealed due to outcry following its use during a trial in Door County. Initially the trial ended with a hung jury but a retrial resulted in a conviction.
Economy
Door County's economy is considered a "forestry-related tourism"-based economy. In 2020, the total gross domestic product (GDP) of the county was $1.39 billion, with the $274 million manufacturing industry overtaking real estate and rental and leasing that year to become the leading industry in the county at 19.7% of the overall GDP.