Archaeology s in 1960 and 1961 Paleo-Indian artifacts have been found at two sites in the town of
Union and two sites in the city of Sturgeon Bay. The Cardy and Salisbury Steak sites are located about a mile from each other in the south side of the city, and the Heyrman I and Boss Tavern (or Fabry Creek) sites are a quarter-mile from each other along
Highway 57 in the town of Union. It is thought that the Boss Tavern site was used as a base camp, while the Heyrman I site was used as a workshop area for producing stone tools and possibly also as a very brief campsite. Both sites were occupied multiple times by Paleo-Indians. 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. The tools and waste chips at the Heyrman I site suggest that the Paleo-Indians there may have been less mobile than those who resided at the Boss Tavern site. from Illinois, and four Gainey points were found at the Cardy Site. The relationship between Gainey points and the more ubiquitous Clovis points is being researched, but there are some similarities. Careful study of certain Paleo-Indian artifacts from western Wisconsin suggests that they were made in the Door Peninsula and carried across the state. Paleo-Indian stone tools from made from stone sourced from the Door Peninsula or its immediate vicinity have been found as far west as in
Trempealeau,
La Crosse,
Jackson, and
Jackson, and
Monroe counties and as far south as
Dane County. In 246 B.C (±25 years), a dog was buried in a Native American burial site on Washington Island.
Etymology The name of the peninsula and the county comes from the name of a route between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. Humans, whether Native Americans, early explorers, or American ship captains, have been well aware of the dangerous water passage that lies between the Door Peninsula and
Washington Island, connecting the bay to the rest of Lake Michigan. 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. The Menominee name for the peninsula was "Kenatao", meaning "cape".
Potawatomi and Menominee Before and during the 19th century, various Native Americans occupied the Door Peninsula and nearby islands. 17th-century French explorers made contact with various tribes in the area. In 1634, the
Jean Nicolet expedition landed at
Rock Island. This is considered the first visit by a European to what is now Wisconsin. 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. Nicolet is remembered in Wisconsin lore for having mistaken the
Ho-Chunk Indians for Asians and celebrating, believing he had reached the
Far East. Nicolet had heard long before coming that the people living along these shores were called
Winnebago ("the people from the stinking water") and, perhaps erroneously, "the People of the Sea". He concluded that this name meant they were from or living near the
Pacific Ocean with its aromatic salt air and that they would be a direct link to the people of
China, if not from China. In 1665,
Pierre-Esprit Radisson and
Médard des Groseilliers spent the winter with the
Potawatomi. Explaining his travels, Radisson reported that We embarked ourselves on the delightfullest lake of the world. I tooke notice of their Cottages & of the journeys of our navigation, for because that the country was so pleasant, so beautiful & fruitfull that it grieved me to see that the world could not discover such inticing countrys to live in. 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 & 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 conquest would that bee att litle or no cost; what laborinth of pleasure should millions of people have, instead that millions complaine of misery & poverty! 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! Why so many thoesoever are hid from us by our owne faults, by our negligence, covetousnesse, & unbeliefe. 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. He mentioned an area called "la Portage des Eturgeons." In 1673,
Jacques Marquette and
Louis Jolliet stayed in the area about three months as part of their exploration. In 1679, the party led by
La Salle purchased food from a village of Potawatomi in what is now Robert La Salle County Park. During the 1670s
Louis André ministered to about 500 Native Americans at
Rowleys Bay, where he erected a cross. The cross stood until about 1870. Around 1690,
Nicolas Perrot visited the Potawatomi on Washington Island. In 1720,
Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix visited the area with eight experienced
voyageurs. 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. The remains of four Native American buildings were documented at the
Rock Island II Site during 1969–1973 excavations. By the end of French rule over the area in 1763, the Potawatomi had begun a move to the Detroit area, leaving the large communities in Wisconsin. Later, some Potawatomi moved back from Michigan to northern Wisconsin. Some but not all Potawatomi later left northern Wisconsin for northern Indiana and central Illinois. In 1815, Captain Talbot Chambers was falsely reported to have died fighting Blackhawk Indians on Chambers Island; the island was named for him in 1816. In the spring 1833, Odawa on Detroit Island were baptized during an eight day visit by
Frederic Baraga. During an attack in 1835, one of two fishermen squatting on Detroit Island was shot and killed along with one or more Native Americans. The other fisherman was rescued by a passing boat. From the 1840s to the 1880s, the Clark brothers operated a fishing camp at
Whitefish Bay that employed 30 to 40 fishermen. Additionally, 200–300 Potawatomi extracted fish oil from the fish waste at the camp. , 1919 The
Menominee ceded their claim to the Door Peninsula to the United States in the 1831
Treaty of Washington. As a result of this treaty, settlers could purchase land, but many fishermen still chose to live as squatters. At the same time, the more decentralized Potawatomi were divested of their land without compensation. Some Potawatomi as late as 1845 made sure to visit and gamble with the Menominee shortly after the periodic annuity payments were issued. Many emigrated to Canada because of multiple factors. One factor was invitations from Native Americans already in Canada for the Potawatomi to join them. Another was British policies to invite and encourage as much Indian emigration from the United States as possible. 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. Another factor was a desire to avoid the harsh terms of the
1833 Treaty of Chicago, which compensated the Wisconsin Potowatomi with less than what was paid to Potowatomi from the Chicago area. Although not all Potawatomi participated in the Treaty of Chicago, it was federal policy that any who did not relocate westward as the treaty stipulated would not be compensated for their land. Additionally, some preferred the climate of the Great Lakes area over that of the Plains, and American governmental policy for the area beginning in 1837 tended towards forced rather than voluntary Indian removal. Moving to Canada became a way to stay in the Great Lakes area without risking removal.
County border adjustments {{Image frame|width=310|content=|caption=County boundaries in 1835, Michilimackinac County in blue and Brown County in yellow. The Door Peninsula is labeled as "Cape Townsend," one of its British colonial era names. Other obsolete names for the peninsula include "Vermilion Point" and "Long Point." In 1818,
Michilimackinac and Brown counties were formed by the Michigan territorial legislature. The border between the two ran through the peninsula at Sturgeon Bay. What is now the southern part of Door County was in Brown County, while the northern part was in Michilimackinac County. In 1836, the northern part of Door County was taken from Michilimackinac County and added to
Brown County as part of an overall border adjustment limiting Michilimackinac to areas within the soon-to-be-reduced
Michigan Territory. When Door County was separated off from Brown County in 1851, it included what is now Kewaunee County. Kewaunee County was separated off of Door County in 1852. Although the Door–
Marinette county lines within the Wisconsin part of Green Bay were assigned to the "center of the main channel of Green Bay," not all maps drew the positions of the islands and the main channel of Green Bay correctly. In particular, some once incorrectly considered
Green Island in what is now the town of
Peshtigo in Marinette County to be in the town of Egg Harbor in Door County. In 1923, Michigan claimed ownership of
Plum,
Detroit,
Washington,
Hog, and
Rock islands in Door County, although it did not take possession of them. In 1926, the Supreme Court dismissed Michigan's claim. In doing so, the court mistakenly appeared to award islands north of Rock Island in Delta County to Wisconsin (and by extension to Door County). Door County never assumed jurisdiction over these Michigan islands, and the matter was fixed again before the Supreme Court in the 1936
Wisconsin v. Michigan decision, which left governance of the islands in Door and Delta counties as they had been before the litigation. 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. 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. == Geography ==