The Story Behind One of the Most Remote Places in the U.S.
There’s nothing in Wisconsin quite like this: a finger of land surrounded by water that remains one of the most remote and beautiful places in the nation.
It’s called the Door Peninsula and stretches out 82 miles northeast from Green Bay, like the jagged blade of a knife reaching right up to the Michigan border.
Once, ships carrying Wisconsin timber had to travel all the way around the peninsula to bring that timber to ports like Chicago and Detroit. It was such a dangerous passage, it was known as “Death’s Door,” which was how the Door Peninsula got its name.
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Over the centuries, hundreds of vessels shipwrecked in these shoal-filled waters. But in the 1870s, businessmen dug a giant canal across the Door Peninsula to shorten the route to Green Bay from Lake Michigan. Today, it’s managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and is home to one of the last great industries still in operation on the Great Lakes: The Bay Shipbuilding Co.,, in the town of Sturgeon Bay.
Thinning to less than two miles at its northern tip, it’s full of old farms, wineries, and golden fields of wheat. But the threats to ships on Lake Michigan are very real, which is why the peninsula is home to a magnificent collection of historic lighthouses – 11 in all. They’re strung like bright pearls around its neck.
Watch the video above to see the peninsula in all its glory.
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