The Door Peninsula is a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 in eastern Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, separating the southern part of the Green Bay from Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

. The peninsula begins in northern Brown and Kewaunee counties

Kewaunee County, Wisconsin

Kewaunee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 20,187. Its county seat is Kewaunee. Kewaunee County is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:According to the U.S...

 and proceeds northeast to include all of Door County

Door County, Wisconsin

Door County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 27,961. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay. Door County is a popular vacation and tourist destination, especially for residents of Wisconsin and Illinois....

. It is the western portion of the Niagara Escarpment

Niagara Escarpment

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois...

. Well known for its cherry

Cherry

The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....

 and apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

 orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

s, the Door Peninsula is a popular tourism destination. With the 1882 completion of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal is a shipping canal connecting Sturgeon Bay on Green Bay with Lake Michigan, across the Door Peninsula, at the city of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin....

, the northern half of the peninsula became an island.

Limestone outcroppings of the Niagara Escarpment

Niagara Escarpment

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois...

 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. Progressions of dune

Dune

In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...

s have created much of the rest of the shoreline, especially on the easterly side. Flora along the shore provides clear evidence of plant succession

Ecological succession

Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, and refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community...

. The middle of the peninsula is mostly flat, cultivated land. Beyond the northern tip of the peninsula are a succession of islands, the largest of which is Washington Island

Washington Island (Wisconsin)

Washington Island is located about 7 miles northeast of the tip of Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin. The island has a year-round population of 660 people . It has a land area of 60.89 km² and comprises over 92 percent of the land area of the town of Washington, as well as all of its...

. The partially submerged ridge extends further north, becoming the Garden Peninsula

Garden Peninsula

The Garden Peninsula is a peninsula of in length that extends southwestward into Lake Michigan from the mainland of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, and by Big Bay de Noc on the west. The base of the peninsula is served by U.S. Highway 2, and...

 in Upper Michigan.

History

Archaeological evidence shows habitation of the peninsula and its islands by several different Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 groups. Two locations on the peninsula claim to be the landing site of French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 explorer Jean Nicolet

Jean Nicolet

Jean Nicolet de Belleborne was a French coureur des bois noted for exploring Green Bay in what is now the U.S. state of Wisconsin.-Life:...

 in 1634, who was searching for a water route through North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 to Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

: Horseshoe Island

Horseshoe Island (Wisconsin)

Horseshoe Island is an island in Green Bay in Door County, Wisconsin. The island is located offshore from Peninsula State Park and is part of the state park. The French explorer Jean Nicolet reportedly landed on the island....

, which is part of Peninsula State Park

Peninsula State Park

Peninsula State Park is a Wisconsin state park with eight miles of Green Bay shoreline in Door County. Peninsula is the third largest state park in Wisconsin, and is visited by an estimated 1 million visitors annually.-Points of interest:...

, and Red Banks, which is about 7 miles north of what is now Green Bay

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...

. Nicolet is remembered in Wisconsin lore for having mistaken the Ho-Chunk

Ho-Chunk

The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....

 Indians for Asians and celebrating, believing he had reached the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

. Nicolet had heard long before coming that the people living along these shores were called Winnebago

Ho-Chunk

The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....

 ("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

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 with its aromatic salt air and that they would be a direct link to the people of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, if not from China.

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

Washington Island (Wisconsin)

Washington Island is located about 7 miles northeast of the tip of Door Peninsula in Door County, Wisconsin. The island has a year-round population of 660 people . It has a land area of 60.89 km² and comprises over 92 percent of the land area of the town of Washington, as well as all of its...

, connecting the bay to the rest of Lake Michigan. This small strait is now littered with shipwreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

s. It was named by the Native Americans and translated into French as Porte des Morts

Porte des Morts

Porte des Morts, also known as Porte des Mortes, the Door of Death, and Death's Door is a strait linking Lake Michigan and Green Bay between the northern tip of the peninsula of Door County, Wisconsin and a group of islands historically known as the Potawatomi Islands and dominated by Washington...

: in English, "Death's Door".

External links

• Door County tourism information from TravelWisconsin.com
• Door County Chamber of Commerce