Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 18: Door County Industries, 1917

Chapter 18: Door County Industries

The industries of Door County are many and varied. The oldest and most important are fishing, lumbering and farming. Lately, however, many new industries have developed which annually bring in many million dollars into the county. These later industries are shipbuilding, the quarrying of stone, cheesemaking, fruitgrowing, canning, and the summer resort business.

Fishing

It was the fishing which first brought settlers to Door County. In 1836 a number of fishermen settled on Rock Island and in a few years the shores of Washington Island were also girdled with their nets. No figures are available to show what amount of fish was shipped from the county in those years or later, but the abundance of fish was fabulous and almost inexhaustible. For a great many years only whitefish and trout were caught. The large rivers of clear, cold water that poured into Green Bay from the great Wiscousin forests made it the favorite feeding and spawning ground for these fish. They were caught in gill nets 180 feet long set in from six to ten feet of water. These nets were kept upright by a certain style of sinkers, called fishermen's lead, attached to the bottom and wooden floats at the top. Sometimes the whitefish were so numerous that the nets had to be cleared of fish during the night. The profits, however, were small. After the whitefish or trout was dressed and packed it was taken to the nearest markets and mills and there sold for less than two cents a pound. This was the price as late as 1885.

When the whitefish after thirty to forty years began to show signs of depletion, the herring fisheries began. This fish was caught in huge pound nets costing upwards of six hundred dollars and suspended from "pound sticks" - immensely long tamarack poles - driven into the lake bottom in water forty to sixty fcet deep. Some- times fifty to one hundred "packages" could be taken from one net. These packages or half barrels weighed about 160 pounds when filled and were sold at from $1.50 to $3 apiece. In winter the herring was sold in a frozen state and then the price was sometimes only 40 cents per 100 pounds.

These pound nets lined the shores of the entire county and hundreds of fishermen were there busy cleaning their fish, mending their nets or overhauling their boats. While, as stated before, no statistics are available, it is probable that the fishing industry annually brought into the county about half a million dollars.

Many men are still making a living by fishing, particularly on Washington Island, but the catch is now only a small part of what it was. The better price obtained, however, makes the gross revenue from this industry about the same. A. Kalmbach pays about one hundred thousand dollars for fish annually. The fishermen of Washington Island and the northern part of the county sell their catch at Green Bay. The total revenue from the fish industry is about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year.

The Timber Industry

I am not sure that Door County lumbering should be classified as an industry. Perhaps it would be more correct to classify it as a work of destruction. One definition of the word is that "Industry is human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of wealth." If we abide by this definition we must reject lumbering in Door County as an industry. Almost every lumber operator in the history of the county has failed in business. One of the first, and the largest lumber operator in the county was F. B. Gardner who started a mill in 1855. His mill at Little Sturgeon sawed and shipped almost sixty million feet of lumber annually. Yet Mr. Gardner failed in business three times. Other early mills were Crandall & Bradley's, D. H. Burtis' and R. & P. Graham's at Sturgeon Bay. All these mills failed. They were succeeded by S. D. Clark, the Sturgeon Bay Lumber Co. and others, nearly all of whom failed. In different parts of the county have been many smaller mills, most of which failed sooner or later.

If most of the lumber operators made little or no money in this business, the farmers who had logs to sell made less. Splendid body pine without knots was sold at $1.50 to $5 per 1,000 feet. In July, 1858, W. H. Warren sold 20,000 feet of pine logs at $1.25 per 1,000

The most successful mill owners in Door County have been Geo. O. Spear and Chas. Scofield Co., later known as Leathem & Smith. They operated mills at Red River and other places in the southern half of the county and also on Chambers Island and while they did not get rich at it, they were able to dodge bankruptcy. At Tornado in the southern part of the county Chas. Scofield had one of the largest shingle mills in the county, sawing upwards of a million shingles daily. y

While the "royal pine" of Door County has beggared almost every one that touched him, his sister trees have been more charitable. 'The maple, the beach and even the hemlock have brought considerable wealth into the county. In the interior counties of the state the pioneer was obliged with infinite toil to roll his maples together and burn them. In Door County, however, thanks to the ease of shipping by water, he was able to split them up and sell them as cordwood. The great abundance of cedar, growing mostly on the lowlands on the eastern side of the peninsula, was also a source of considerable income to the farmers in winter time. The earliest operator in cedar was D. H. Rice who about 1850 started to get out cedar in a small way . at Rawleys Bay. He was followed in 1855 by Levi Thorp at Egg Harbor and Asa Thorp at Fish Creek who shipped very large quantities of cedar and cordwood over their own piers. By 1882 there were no less than sixty piers in Door County, shipping cordwood, ties, posts and hemlock bark. Some of these piers shipped five to six thousand cords of wood annually. The gross receipts from these shipments in the best years amounted to about one million two hundred thousand dollars. 'Phis was a very respectable figure in view of the exceedingly low prices which were paid for forest products during the '70s and '80s when the industry was at its height. The following price list advertised by Horn & Joseph in 1880 shows the average price that was paid in those years:

The reader will no doubt think these prices are excessively low. Yet they sometimes went lower than these. In 1877, for instance, maple wood was worth only $1.6215 per cord delivered on the pier. Telegraph poles and other cedar products were practically worthless. One buyer in 1876 sent a cargo of telegraph poles to Chicago. When he received his pay he lacked $60 of paying the freight!

Notwithstanding these small prices the pioneer was so accustomed to struggle with his cordwood and ties in the deep snow, and so welcome was the little check he finally received some time the following fall, that he dreaded to think what would become of him when the cordwood would be gone. But fortune did not smile on him until the last stick was cut and the sun came in to make the grass grow for his cows. Then, at last, came prosperity to Door County.

The largest operator in cedar timber was Joseph Smith, of Jacksonport, called the "Cedar King of Door County." One season he shipped seventy cargoes of cedar. This was in 1879. His shipments amounted to $150,000 per year. Chas. Reynolds, also of! Jacksonport, was also a large and successful cedar and cordwood operator. Horn & Joseph, who had one pier at Horn's Pier, another at St. Joseph (later called Lily Bay), and a third at Whitefish Bay, all connected by a private telegraph line, were also immense shippers of wood and cedar. This branch of the timber industry was handled in a different manner from the lumber business. It involved practically no equipment and but little capital and was more profitable.

A large part of Door County was originally covered with white pine. Where Sturgeon Bay is now built was once a magnificent pine forest with huge trees measuring three and four feet in diameter. For an account of a tree that measured three feet in diameter ninety feet from the ground and scaled 10,000 feet of lumber, see the chapter on Clay Banks.

Farming

While an advance guard of farmers invaded the woods and felled the trees preparatory to making farms as early as 1856, there was no farming worth mentioning until about 1870, and less than half of the present farms produced any crops whatever before 1880. Little by little the farmers' clearings grew until by the close of the century almost all the land fit for tillage was cleared. At the present time Door County is second to none in productiveness. More than 70 per cent of the population of the county now live on farms of which 60 per cent are free from mortgages.

Door County successfully grows all kinds of crops grown elsewhere in the state. It also grows several special erops which are but little grown elsewhere. Chief among these are peas. Owing to unusually favorable climatic conditions peas are grown more abundantly here than in any other county in the Middle West. Door County grows twice as many peas as the next largest pea growing county in the state, and almost one-half of the peas grown in the state are grown here. This is one of the chief centers for growing seed peas in the United States. The price of peas is also very gratifying. In 1916 and 1917 $5.25 per bushel was paid for marrowfats, and $4.00 per bushel for field peas. The pea crop for 1916 amounted to almost 500,000 bushels which sold for almost two million dollars. 'The value of all farm crops (live stock and dairy products excepted) was more than three million dollars.

The farmers of Door County have lately directed most of their energies to dairying. The cool climate, the excellent water, the abundant yields of clover and other grasses have made the county particularly suited to dairying. There are now about twenty-eight thousand head of cattle in the county, not including young stock less than a year old, This makes about seven head of cattle for every family in the county. The value of the dairy products is more than one million two hundred thousand dollars.

In the creation of this wealth the cheese factories have been a large factor. Owing to the absence of certain milk bacteria which interferes with the most successful fermentation and curing of cheese in other parts of the state, Door County is rapidly obtaining the flattering reputation of producing the best American cheese in the market. There are now more than sixty cheese factories in the county and new factories are fast being built all over the county.

summer months are paying $25,000 per week to the farmers of Door County. Their local representative states that the cheese bought by them in Door County will amount to more than one million dollars for the year 1917. Many cheese factories in the soutbern part of the county sell to other commission houses so that the total value of the cheese manufactured in the county is considerably in excess of the above amount. A number of new factories are now being opened in the northern and southwestern parts of the county.

It is probable that the cheese production in the vicinity of Sturgeon Bay will be curtailed, due to the severe competition started by a milk condensing factory which was opened July 1, 1917, in Sawyer. The officials in charge of this business curtly refuse to give any information concerning their business which has been asked for for the purpose of embodying in this history. For some reason they appear to dread publicity. It is reported, however, that they at present are operating sixteen milk routes daily, from Forestviile on the south to Carlsville on the north. 'These sixteen trucks and wagons bring in about fifty thousand pounds of milk daily. "The price paid is from $2.50 to $3.00 per hundred pounds, which makes almost thirteen hundred dollars per day, or nearly five hundred thousand dollars per year. Adding the value of the cheese industry, the condensing industry and the not inconsiderable amount of butter sold there is no doubt that the returns from the dairy industry is more than one million six hundred thousand dollars per year.

According to the U. S. census of 1910, the value of the dairy products of Door County in that year was $353,484. This is probably an error as it seems improbable that this industry can have increased in value more than 400 per cent in seven years.

Fruit Growing

The earliest attempt at commercial horticulture in Door County was made by Dr. E. M. Thorpe on Strawberry Island near Fish Creek. In 1865 Dr. Thorpe cleared the island and planted most of it - more than twentyacres - to grapes. Fora few years the grapes did moderately well but when the doctor moved away the whole island soon relapsed into a wilderness.

The earliest farm orchards of which there are any records are those of Joseph Zettel and Robert Laurie. Zettel began setting out trees in 1862. Laurie must have begun just as early. At the first county fair, held in the old courthouse, October 20, 1869, Robert

In 1866 several commercial orchards were started in the county. J.J. Pinney at,this time traded a tract of land in Ohio which he had never seen for a large quantity of fruit trees. These were shipped to Sturgeon Bay and sold to the farmers. The biggest investor in these trees was Joseph Zettel who by this time had become an enthusiastic fruitgrower. After a few years Mr. Zettel had fortyfive acres planted to apples, this being the largest apple orchard in the state for many years. In 1892 he harvested 3,000 bushels of apples. The next year he had a big exhibit of more than twenty varieties at the world's fair in Chicago.

Unfortunately, notwithstanding this demonstration of successful conditions, fruit growing was as yet a side line and the care of the trees was indifferent. The varieties were largely unsuited to the markets. Nevertheless Mr. Joseph Zettel is entitled to great credit for having by persistent and abundant planting demonstrated Door County's fitness for growing fruit.

About this time Door County's favorable conditions for fruit growing as successfully demonstrated by Joseph Zettel and others hegan to attract the attention of certain men who were soon to make Door County famous as a fruit growing region. In 1891 Door County was visited by Mr. A. L. Hatch and Prof. E. S. Goff. Mr. Hatch was a large commercial fruit grower of Richland County and Professor Goff was professor in horticulture at the University of Wisconsin. "They were pleased with the evidences of unusually favorable climatic conditions for growing fruit, as shown by several small plantings of plums, apples and cherries in different parts of the county and were particularly impressed with Mr. Zettel's testimony that for forty years he had never suffered injury from a spring frost. They, therefore, bought eighty acres of land, about a mile north of the city. This land was on a stony ridge of land stretching northward from the city, a pine slashing, which up to that time had not been considered valuable for farming purposes. But Mr. Hatch with his indomitable energy immediately proceeded to grub up the stumps, bury the stones and soon converted the wilderness into the highest priced lands in Door County.

In 1893 they set out six acres of plums of European and Japanese varieties, some mixed cherries and pears and 50,000 apple grafts. In 1894 and 1895 they added ten acres of plums, set out more apple grafts and many strawberry plants. In 1896 they began to plant the sour cherries which was to become such a famous factor in Door County's industries and publicity. They set out three acres of cherries this year. They also set out eight acres of apples, one variety of which, then new to the county, later became the most popular. This was the Wealthy.

W. I. Lawrence also began to plant cherries, one-half acre, in 1896. In 1897 A. W. Lawrence planted five acres of cherries. It was this orchard which after some years of neglect became the most profitable and famous orchard in Door County. D. E. Bingham who had for some years worked for Mr. Hatch, became his partner in 1895, and later, as successful fruitgrower and public speaker at farmers' institutes, became the most widely known orchardist of the state. Professor Goff withdrew from the partnership in 1898. Messrs Hatch and Bingham, however, continued to plant trees and operate the nursery from which most of the important orchards in the county got their first plantings. Mr. Hatch did not become a permanent resident in the county until 1898.

Up to this time and for several years afterward the plantings had been confined to the immediate vicinity of Sturgeon Bay. The first commercial planting in the northern part of the county was made in 1894 by L. D. Thorp at Egg Harbor. His trees were nearly all summer apples, for which there was but little demand. The next planter was H. R. Holand at Ephraim. In 1899 he set out six acres of winter apples, which was followed three or four years later by a much larger acreage of the same fruit trees. In 1903 Dr. Eames of

"gg Harbor began his plantings which shortly became very extensive. About this time William Marshall, D. E. Bingham, N. C., Jacobs and Geo. Christianson, all large growers near Sturgeon Bay, set out their large orchards.

For a few years this work of setting out orchards continued in a quiet way by a small number of men who had faith in Door County's special fitness for growing fruit. Their enterprise did not attract much attention, however, because horticulture is a waiting game. Eventually the orchards of A. L. Hatch, W. I. Lawrence and A. W. Lawrence, for many years the big three in Door County horticulture, began to yield crops. In 1908, 1909 and 1910 these crops become fabulously great and Door County received national attention. This peninsula, formerly supposed to be a land of pine forests and icebergs, began to produce luscious cherries by the carloads, with such returns per acre as to be quite unbelievable. Below is a statement copied from

"Seventeen years ago a man planted 600 cherry trees. He lacked faith. The trees were neglected for seven years. The neighbors of the man took care of their trees and waxed rich. The man was wise and sought counsel of his neighbors who said: 'Spray, cultivate, prunc, cultivate, spray and prune.' -

"Fifty of the trees had already died but the remaining 550 in nine years yielded 343,792 quarts of cherries which brought the man a net revenue of $21,218.30. One year the trees bore 48,144 quarts, which sold for $4,724.18. It cost the man $1,378.28 to cultivate, prune, spray and to pick and market the fruit, leaving $3,350.85 net profit, an average net return of $609.24 an acre.

As a result of this success, which was practically equalled by Bingham, Hatch and W. I. Lawrence, there nów, in 1908, began a boom in fruit growing which lasted for several years. Huge wagon loads of two-year-old fruit trees were to be seen in springtime on every cross road. They were sometimes planted with dynamite rending the rock in fragments and sometimes they were rammed into the soil with a crowbar. Vast areas of wild land were feverishly conquered by every human and mechanical device and set ovt to cherry trees. Others had not the patience to plant new orchards but bought other orchards set out a few years, paying from five hundred to one thousand dollars per acre for them. Every back yard and stone pile had its bunch of cherry trees.

Chief among these plantations were a number of large corporations which set out hundreds of acres of cherry trees. The first was the Sturgeon Bay Orchard and Nursery Co., which in 1910 set out forty acres in cherries. They now have 160 acres of cherries and apples. ` In 1911 the Co-operative Orchard Co. planted 200 acres of cherries. They now have about seven hundred acres of cherries in one body, being the biggest cherry orchard in the world. The Reynolds Preserving Co. planted sixty acres in 1911. They soon had about three hundred fifty acres but now only about two hundred acies in cherries. The Ellison Bay Orchard Co. planted fifty-six acres in 1911. They now have 210 acres in fruit, mostly in apples. The Peninsula Fruit Farm Co. planted 110 acres in 1912. They now have 210 acres in cherries and apples. The Sturgeon Bay Fruit Co. have about eighty acres in cherries and apples and so has the Cady Land Co. Many other growers have more than forty acres in orchards. `

"fruit. Of these we have 8,270 acres in cherries, 1,900 acres in apples and about three hundred acres in small berries, particularly strawberries. `

Sawyer and vicinity........ es 844 Egg Harbor ........ ... 258 Gibraltar «5603s 37064 Maes aiding Penis 180 Liberty Grove and Sister Bay............ 186 Washington Island nó A Baileys: Harbor eiris gases esi castes 31 JacksOnpOrt- «suec Duos Pax ss 15

In 1917 there was shipped through the fruit exchange 103,000 crates of cherries. Private shippers disposed of about twelve thousand crates. 'l'his required no less than two hundred and thirty railroad cars to haul it away, and the value of this cherry crop was about one hundred eighty-five thousand dollars. The fruit exchange also shipped 8,514 crates of strawberries, 2,675 crates of currants and 1,186 crates of gooseberries. Private shippers would increase these figures by at least 5 per cent. The small fruit brought in about twenty-five thousand dollars. No statistics are available for the value or extent of the apple crop, but it may safely be put at thirty thousand dollars. "The total value of Door County's fruit crop in 1917 is therefore not less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars. As most of the orchards are only in the infancy of their fruitfulness it will not be long before the fruit production of the county will pass the million dollar mark.

The boom has now ceased. A few of the smaller orchards which were planted in unsuitable locations or which have been neglected will be cut down. "Phe biggest orchards will no doubt be divided into smaller tracts as it is too much of an undertaking for any one manager to. handle such huge plantations. Nearly all the orchards of Door County are in the immediate vicinity of Sturgeon Bay, Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim and Ellison Bay. The southern part of the county, with its heavy clay soil, has been found less adapted to fruit growing. `

The chief reason why Door County possesses such marked advantages over the rest of the state for producing fruit is its peculiar climatic conditions caused by its insular location. The modifying influence of the waters and ice of Lake Michigan and Green Bay gives the peninsula a cold, backward spring. It is generally considered that this retards bloom until the frosts are over. The fact is, rather, that it prevents a rapid, tender growth that would not be sufficiently hardy to endure subsequent frosts. Further south there is too little steady cold; fruit trees burst quickly into bloom with the advent of warm days, and the tender growth succumbs to subsequent frosts. In Door County the buds come on very slowly; often it is several weeks from the time they first swell until full bloom. During that time they strengthen and become hardy. Further south what we consider hardy vegetables like the cabbage, the onion or beet are sometimes destroyed by frost on account of their rapid, tender growth.

University Of-Wisconsin

modify the temperature that there is a long time when frosts are not severe enough to destroy the leaves, but allows them to do their work to the fullest extent, ripening the twigs, storing surplus food for spring use, hardening and perfecting the buds. Thus our climate helps at both ends of the season. Fruits of this region are fine keepers and good shippers on account of the climate, and this is a valuable factor in commercial fruit culture.

Fruit growing has now become an established industry in Door County. Not only is the climate remarkably favorable but the cherry trees are also more immune to insect pests here than elsewhere. The cherry curculio and other causes of wormy cherries, for instance, are unknown here. Similarly apple trees do better here than anywhere else in the Middle West. While we can grow almost any variety the most successful in a commercial sense have been found to be N. W. Greening, Wealthy, McIntosh, Snow, Duchess and Dudley.

Door County has also been fortunate in having had excellent teachers in fruit growing. Due to the intelligent and thorough example of A. L. Hatch, D. E. Bingham, A. W. Lawrence and W. I. Lawrence, the fruitgrowers of the county have learned that it pays to cultivate and spray. The result is that nowhere can be found better orchard treatment. More than one-half of all the spraying outfits in the state are here in Door County.

The Stone Industry

Door County's first export consisted of stone. In 1834 the Federal Governinent began to quarry stone at the Government bluff at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay. This stone was used to build the breakwaters of Michigan City. Since then millions of tons of Door County stone have been used in harbor improvement. Almost every harbor on Lake Michigan has been built in part with Door County stone.

Occasional shipments of stone have been made from Door County at very early dates. Alanson Sweet, a vessel owner and commission man in Milwaukee, in 1849, opened a quarry at Baileys Harbor, whose founder he was, and took a number of cargoes of stone to Milwaukee in the following two or three years. A stone quarry was also opened at Door Bluff as early as 1854 by some men from Green Bay. The character of the rock found there led to the belief that it contained marble of fine quality for building purposes and preparations were made for extensive operations in the product. Village lots were laid out on the summit of the bluff, and a large pier was constructed. The marble proved to be a delusion, however, and the works were abandoned after a few cargoes had been shipped. The foundations of the ill-fated Newhall House, Milwaukee's large and elegant hotel, were built of stone quarried at this quarry in 1856. This hotel was destroyed by fire in 1882 and about one hundred of its inmates perished in the flames.'

The stone quarry started by Mr. Sweet at Baileys Harbor was re-opened in 1868 and for a few seasons large quantities of stone were shipped to the east shore of Lake Michigan.

The stone industry is generally said to have been started by Robert Laurie and his son, John. In 1880 the Laurie Stone Quarry was opened up and about nine hundred cords of stone were shipped from this quarry in that year. A large part of this was building stone which was taken to Marinette and retailed to builders in that and neighboring towns. In the same year L. R. McLachlan opened a quarry. He shipped about the same amount of stone. His stone, however, was shipped across Lake Michigan and used by the Government for harbor construction. McLachlan's quarry was operated fora time by the Washington Ice Company and is now known as the Sturgeon Bay Stone Company.

Early in the eighties Frank Hogan opened a stone quarry in the Government Bluff at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay. Being only a squatter on this land he was driven off, whereupon he started a quarry in Sawyer. This is now known as the Green Stone Company. In 1893 Leathem & Smith opened their quarry at the mouth of the bay. "This has since become the largest crushed stone plant in the state, having a capacity of 1,000 tons of crushed stone per day.

Since the crushing machines have been added to the plant the waste of years is being utilized. There are fully two hundred fifty thousand cubic yards of chips in one large pile extending along the north end of the quarry which accumulated during the years.

These chips are loaded into cars by a steam shovel, each car containing four cubic yards or five tons of stone, and conveyed to the crushing plant by the "dinky" locomotive. The cars dump direct into the large crusher, which chews and crunches and appears to masticate and swallow the entire five tons in four minutes. An apparently endless string of cars is being dumped continually into the mouth of this massive machine.

conveyors to screens where the stone is washed and assorted into the various sizes and the stone which came through too large is returned to two smaller crushers where it is re-crushed.

There are five sizes of crushed stone. From the screens the product is carried by means of chutes into separate bins and carried out from these bins by tunnel and piling conveyors to stock piles. By a tunnel conveyor the stock is loaded on the boats. The greater part of this stone is sold to various towns who use it for building concrete and macadam roads.

In connection with the crushed stone plant is the stone quarry proper, from which is derived the rubble stone and rip-rap, which is used entirely in breakwater work and by the Government.

Rubble stone is used for curb work and is called one-man stone, weighing between 50 and 100 pounds. Rip-rap stone each weigh from two to five tons, are used for the same purpose as the rubble, and are handled and loaded by a derrick.

An interesting part of the quarry work is the blasting in which a ton or more of dynamite is used in one explosion, throwing down 20,000 tons of rock in a single blast.

The present face of the quarry is about fifty feet in height and a drill machine works along the top boring 6-inch holes fifty feet deep to the base. A series of probably ten holes are drilled and loaded with dynamite. When the explosion occurs it appears as though the whole side of a mountain had been blown away. Eventually the quarry will have a 70-foot face.

The apparent success of these early stone quarry companies induced a number of others to follow their example. In the '80s and '90s stone quarries were opened at Ephraim, Mud Bay, Ellison Bay, Garrets Bay, Washington Island and other points, and for a short time a large amount of stone was quarried. After a few years of doubtful success these last mentioned quarries were all closed.

The Canning Industry

In 1896 the Reynolds Preserving Company started their large pea cannery. This was one of the first three canneries in the state and the first one to introduce the vining system. Other factories at this time had no provisions for vining the peas. At first the vining was done at the central plant, but later a number of vining stations were established. The first factory was a part of the present Goodrich warehouse. Two hundred thousand cans were put up the first season and about fifty persons were employed in the factory. In 1907 the output was 3,309,000 cans and about two hundred persons were employed in the factory.

The canning company used to rent a great deal of land on which to grow their peas. The lowest rent paid was $8 per acre. In 1907, 2,200 acres were rented at a cost of $22,000. All the work was done by the company. The crop is uncertain, however, only one in four having been found satisfactory. One year 2,500 acres were sown by them of which only 1,000 acres yielded sufficiently to induce cutting.

Because of these and other uncertainties the Reynolds Preserving Company is not pushing the canning of peas as energetically as formerly. Moreover, in order to improve the quality of the output the vining stations have been discontinued.

In 1917 the canning company began to can cherries. Thirtythree thousand crates were contracted for. The Reynolds Preserving Company has a capital stock of $100,000.

In 1902 Louis Reichel started a cannery in Sawyer under the name of the Door County Canning Company, which later was purchased by the Van Camp Company. The largest output of this cannery was 2,000,000 cans in 1907. This cannery has had a rather checkered existence and was finally closed up. In 1917 the Van Camp Company opened it again as a factory for condensed milk.

The Shipbuilding Industry

Millions of feet of lumber have been used in Door County in the construction of boats. The vast majority of these, hundreds of them, have, of course, been small tubs, pound boats used by the fisherman. Many more ambitious crafts have been built, however, and there is now in Sturgeon Bay a shipyard employing hundreds of men.

The first shipbuilder in Door County was George Lovejoy, one of the earliest settlers of little Rock Island. About 1850 he built a trim little vessel which is described by old settlers as having been a very good sailor and was used for freighting. In 1859 the Laurin Brothers built a schooner named the Peninsula, described by others as "a model of beauty and one of the fastest sailors on Green Bay." They also built the Belle Laurie and the Katie Laurie.

The most interesting boat builder of Door County was old Capt. David Clow of Chambers Island. He settled on Chambers Island about 1850 and built a number of schooners, among them being the Pocohontas, the Sarah Clow, and the Lewis Day. The

Sarah Clow was launched in 1862 and had a 120-foot keel, measuring 285 tons. The Lewis Day was launched in 1868, was 155 feet long and was at that time one of the largest vessels on the Great Lakes. The Sarah Clow was built entirely by the captain and his good wife, who together cut down the oaks of Chambers Island, ripped them into boards and planks with a whip-saw and stitched the vessel together with wooden trummels. For an account of this amazing achievement and for the captain's wonderful rescue of his vessel when she was thrown high and dry up into an Ohio swamp by a hurricane on Lake Erie, the reader is referred to the Chapter on Chambers Island.

At Little Sturgeon where F. B. Gardner had a big sawmill and several other industries a number of fine vessels were built just after the Civil war. Mr. Gardner was the owner of the shipbuilding plant which for a time employed a couple of hundred men, but Thomas Spear was the shipbuilder. Mr. Spear was an expert ship carpenter having built many salt-water vessels in Maine. Assisted by his sons, George and Marshall Spear, he in the years 1866 to 1871, built the vessel long known as the James G. Blaine, also the tug John Spry, the Schooners Halstead, Ellen Spry and the J. W. Doane. He also rebuilt several large vessels. Some of the vessels named above were very large, carrying as much as seven hundred thousand feet of lumber.'

In giving an account of early shipbuilding, mention must also be made of the City of Podunk, built by Henry Schuyler, Sr., in 1867. She was the first steamcraft built in Door County, and was an odd and primitive craft, her construction and appearance being a wonder of modern maritime construction. She was a side wheeler, her shaft being a stout oak log. As the City of Podunk, particularly her engine, was of a bashful and sedentary disposition, it was necessary for the mate to climb up on her paddles to furnish the impulse of starting.

The biggest single business in Door County at present is Rieboldt & Wolter's Shipyard at Sturgeon Bay. This is said to be the best equipped plant on the Great Lakes for building wooden vessels. This business was started in Sturgeon Bay in 1896 by the present firm, who for eleven yeafs previously had operated a similar plant in Sheboygan. When they started in Sturgeon Bay they employed about twenty to thirty men. One of their first jobs was to build a 110-foot fire tug for the City of Milwaukee. Most of their work, however, has further information on the shipbuilding at Little Sturgeon, see the chapter entitled The Golden Age of Little Sturgeon.

been that of overhauling and repairing vessels and building drydocks. Hundreds of vessels have here limped in lame and shabby, and after a few weeks' treatment by expert mechanics have sailed off dapper and jauntily. 'This work has in some seasons given employment to more than two hundred men, particularly in winter. Many of the weary cruisers who have come here for repairs have been found to be in such an advanced stage of dilapidation that their owners have not cared to incur the repair bill or even to take their derelicts away. Many of these therefore now lie in the water around the shipyard in picturesque desolation - a graveyard of ancient crafts that have breasted many a storm.

Besides repairing vessels the Rieboldt & Wolter Shipyards have also built many drydocks. A very large one, costing $60,000, has just been built for Toronto, whither it was towed in three sections. The firm is at present building an immense vessel, measuring 264 feet in length, intended for ocean traffic. The boat is built entirely of oak and when completed will contain 800,000 feet of that lumber. It has been taken over by the Government.

The Summer Resort Business

'There probably never was a time when Door County was not admired for its scenery or enjoyed for its salubrious climate. As early as 1865 and 1866 we find the county mentioned as a place sure to attract the attention of tourists. Wm. B. Lawrence, who owned the Cedar Street Hotel in Sturgeon Bay, was so confident of this that he, in 1866, enlarged his hotel for the express purpose of catering to this class of trade.

'The cities of the Middle West were as yet too new, however, to have a tourist class. Therefore, while the charms of Door County were all in readiness, the sightseers did not yet exist to come and view them.

The first summer hotel in Door County was built on the north side of Sawyer Harbor, now commonly called Idlewild. Sawyer Harbor is in the Town of Nasewaupee at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay. Here, more than forty years previously, old Peter Sherwood had reared his cabin in 1838, doubtless attracted by its exquisite beauty. On one side rises Government Bluff, somber and mysterious with unexplored caves and grinning skulls of ancient Indian braves; on the other, Sherwoods Point throws a protecting arm with gravelly beaches shielding from the northern gales this sylvan retreat with its pretty islands, where the partridges used to parade the beach with their little ones. On the exact spot now occupied by Cabot's Lodge J. T. Wright in 1879 built the first summer hotel in Door County. The building was about 125 feet long and quickly proved its usefulness. It had accommodations for about forty guests and was generally filled to capacity. The first resorter to enter his name on the register was Charles Henrotin, a very well known real estate man in Chicago. He proposed the name of Idlewild for the hotel, by which name it was afterwards known. Later this name was fixed to the whole vicinity. Among other early distinguished guests was also Mrs. Sartoris, a daughter of President U. S. Grant.

The Idlewild also did a good business in the winter. There were for some years two large icehouses on Sherwood Point and the many men employed by the ice companies found lodgment here. In summertime Mrs. Sartoris could be seen approaching the table with queenly dignity, her long train carried by a maid or two, while the conventional prattle of other guests would be deflected behind sheltering fans to comment sotto voce on the developing scandal of her frisky husband. In winter burly icemen in overalls and shoe-pacs would feast at the same tables, but on a more substantial diet of pork and beans, while the noisy conversation dwelt on such masculine themes as the trapping of wolves and the extent of the ice cut.

This hotel was destroyed by fire in 1890 and was not rebuilt, as Mrs. Wright was by that time a widow and did not care to resume the arduous labor of the business unaided. The old Haines homestead was close by Idlewild and Melvin Haines now began to cater to the tourist business. He built a new hotel building in 1893.

In the meantime occasional summer visitors had discovered the rare beauties of Ephraim and Fish Creek. For a time they found comfortable lodgings in the homes of the people there, but as there was a steady increase of summer boarders it was necessary to build larger buildings to accommodate them. Immediately before and after the year 1900 a number of large summer hotels were built in Ephraim and Fish Creek and these villages have since been the favorite resorts on the peninsula.

At Sturgeon Bay. - The Cove, accommodates 200, M. E. Lawrence, Prop.; Sylvan Lodge, accommodates 15, H. E. Dankoler, Prop.; Mac Villa, accommodates 30, W. A. McEacham, Prop.; Hansons Villa, accommodates 20, F. S. Hanson, Prop.

At Idlewild. - Idlewild Inn, accommodates 100, Miss Ella Haines, Prop.; The Pines, accommodates 60, N. A. Haines, Prop.; Cabot's Lodge, accommodates 250, Cabot Bros., Prop.

are nearly all doing a crowded business for a short season in summer. Besides these there are also many farmers who cater to summer visitors. Altogether Door County caters to more than two thousand guests per day during the months of July and August. The gross income from this business, including the large number of summer resorters who have private cottages, is about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year.

The Ice Industry

Door County, or rather its surrounding waters, were also for some years a field of operations for many ice companies. In 1876 Albert Marshall Spear who, at that time, owned the Gardner properties at Little Sturgeon Bay made provisions to enter into the ice business. A large ice house was erected and 50,000 tons of ice were stored and shipped. Being unable to handle the business, Mr. Spear sold his interests to the Piper Ice Company. This company erected five large ice houses on the point north of the mill and employed about a hundred men during the winter of 1878 in cutting ice. The following summer they had a fleet of five schooners engaged in carrying ice to Chicago.

This business seems to have been profitable for it was followed by the entrance of a number of other ice companies in the field. In 1880 six ice companies had twelve immense storehouses in and near Sturgeon Bay, and 700 men were employed in cutting ice. "l'his ice industry continued with fair success until 1890. In that year there was a very large amount of ice cut which was held for a rise in price because the quantity obtained on inland lakes further south was small. The price did not rise as fast, however, as the ice sank - by melting - and the result was disastrous to the business. The last concern to enter the ice business in Door County was a company of home people, consisting of John Fetzer, G. W. Young, F. J. and C. Hamilton and John McDonald. They had about sixty men at Horseshoe Bay cutting ice for one season. Like others they held their ice too long and the company disbanded, the ice business proving too chilly a proposition to cling to. Other companies engaged in the ice business in 1890 were the Piper Ice Co., the Washington Ice Co., the Union Ice Co., the Lincoln Ice Co., the Hammond Packing Co., Addis & Co., Spear, Cody & Reynolds and Sibree & Overbeck.

be obtained here the cost of transportation was too great. Shipping by boat necessitated cartage by wagons to their city storehouses, while the ice obtained on the inland lakes could be sent by rail direct to the storehouse. It is likely that this business will in the future be revived in this county.