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Beaches,
Lighthouses, Despair, Suicide
 The April 2002 edition of Money magazine has named Door County one of the nation's ten best vacation spots.
Thanks a lot.
Isn't it enough that more than 400,000 vehicles bearing Minnesota and Illinois license plates jam Door County's tiny villages every summer? Now we'll see minivan loads of Hoosiers and Kentuckians, Cornhuskers and Missourians to boot. Almost makes
Classic Wisconsin nostalgic for the days when the Illinoyances were the only peckerwoods in town.
For those of you contemplating your summer vacation based on the Money magazine article, allow
classicwisconsin to help add some depth to our beloved Badger State…
Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, mad deer, wasted undergrads. Sound fun?
And when it comes to Door County, consider Victor Rohn and John Boyce. Rohn compared the place to a prisoner of war camp. Boyce, after being inspired by the slaughter of pig, took his life with a finely sharpened farm blade to the neck rather than face the prospect of another day in Door County. Yee haa!!!
Have you thought about the Mall of America?
For classicwisconsin subscribers we offer this exclusive tip: In springtime, during the month of May, before the starting gun fires on another summer season, Door County celebrates its heritage sans the tourist mobs. Not only that, Door County's story is the kind Classic Wisconsin loves -- tales of rugged individualists from days long before fudge shops and boutiques. Man versus the elements, nothing more, nothing less. And drunken sailors too.
The icon of that lost age is the lighthouse. This very evening, ten beacons will pierce the darkness of Lake Michigan and Green Bay. All of Door County's lighthouses were first built in the 19th Century.
The stories these places tell. There's the murderous Alpena gale storm of October 1880 when waves pounded Cana Island, flooding the lower level of the keeper's house and forcing Warren Sanderson and his family upstairs.
Then there are Victor Rohn and John Boyce
Out on tiny Pilot Island, Rohn, a hardened Civil War veteran who was keeper from 1866 to 1876, compared it to Libby Prison, the abominable Civil War prison camp. Authorities were quick to note that Assistant Keeper Boyce's suicide in 1880 resulted from lost love -- as if seclusion on an isolated, fog-draped island in Lake Michigan was not a contributing factor.
Romance, power, majesty, tragedy -- it's accessible only one weekend a year (don't tell the Money magazine folks) during the Door County Lighthouse Walk, held the third weekend in May. Two lighthouses, Cana Island and Eagle Bluff, are regularly open to the public, but this is the only time that walking tours of the county's mainland lighthouses and boat tours of the island lighthouses are offered.
Tickets are available from Door County Maritime
Museum, (920) 743-5958.
If you want the real deal -- wind, water, mist, and lighthouses -- call ahead for a place on one of the boat tours. The cruises circle far-flung, button-sized islands and visit lighthouses otherwise inaccessible.
Visiting Door County's lighthouses
in one weekend is impossible.
 If you can't make the Lighthouse Walk weekend,
classicwisconsin highly recommends catching a couple of ferry rides from Gills Rock to Washington Island and Rock Island, where you will find the secluded, primitive Rock Island State Park. Stone buildings, built by an eccentric inventor who owned the island between 1910 and 1945, can be explored. Cars and even bikes are not allowed on the 912-acre island, making for an experience unlike any other Wisconsin state park. There are 10 miles of hiking trails and 5,000 feet of beach. Rock Island has 40 reservable campsites. Call (920) 847-2235 for more info.
Rock Island is home to the Pottawatomie Lighthouse, the county's oldest light. The first Pottawatomie structure was completed in 1837 and manned by a veteran of the War of 1812, David Corbin. Perched on top a jagged-edged 137-foot bluff, Pottawatomie is the best representation of the beautiful seclusion experienced by keepers such as Corbin. An inspector visited Corbin in 1847 and found him competent but lonely. After ten years on the job, the keeper had only a dog and horse for companions. The animals must have been getting better looking every day, because Corbin was given a 20-day leave with orders to find a wife.
No luck. Corbin is buried, alone, in small overgrown cemetery south of the current light where tourists wearing $100 shoes don't bother to tread.
Rock Island is a dream if you are looking to truly experience the edge of the Inland Sea. Odds are you won't run into many Money magazine readers out there. No fudge shops.
What about the stinko sailers, you ask?
Oh yeah, midway up the peninsula, the village of Egg Harbor was named in 1825 as a result of one of the following two legends: 1) An early pioneer found a nest of ducks' eggs; 2) sailors, who had been anchored in the local harbor, hit shore with predicable results: drunkenness, debauchery and general mayhem, including a monumental egg fight.
Guess which legend classicwisconsin likes best.
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Door County's story is the kind classicwisconsin loves -- tales of
rugged individualists from days long before fudge shops and boutiques.
Man versus the elements, nothing more, nothing less. And drunken sailors
too.
The icon of that lost age is the lighthouse.
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