Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 20: Door County Highways, 1917

Until 1856 there was not a mile of public highway in Door County. A few logging roads had already been cut in the immediate vicinity of Sturgeon Bay but these merely meandered through the woods and led nowhere. In 1856 a public subscription was taken up for the purpose of opening a road from Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay. This "road" was partly cut out the same year by E. S. Fuller and Buck Kimber. O. P. Graham played the role of engineer and pathfinder. It followed the present road to Little Sturgeon Bay, then turned southward and coincided with the Red River Road through the Town of Union. As late as 1869, according to Henry C. Graham, who carried the mail between Sturgeon Bay and Fish Creek for $125 per vear, there was no road between these two villages but only a rough trail through the forest. The present main road through Nasewaupee and Brussels was not laid out until 1867.

For the first twenty years of the county's settlement, or until about 1872, these and other roads, except the Little Sturgeon Road, were mere trails winding through the forest practically impassable for vehicles. Owing to the fact that water navigation was easy and accessible to almost all there was very little interest taken in the construction of roads. In 1864 Senator Joseph Harris secured the adoption of a bill in the Legislature requiring Door County to levy an annual tax, not to exceed three thousand dollars, for the purpose of improving the main traveled roads. A small tax was therefore levied for bridges and culverts and there were hopes that the roads would be gradually improved.

The highways generally continued, however, in a most wretched shape. The stumps were left to rot, little or no grading was done and the bottom lands in particular were in an indescribable state. Here the only sign of a road, in spring or fall, was a deeper mudhole than the surrounding tract showed. Through such bottom lands, as for instance Plum Bottom in the Town of Egg Harbor, the horses would plunge up to their breasts in mud and water.' On the highlands the

1 The Advocate of May 20, 1886, contains the following illuminative account of certain parts of the main county road leading north from the city: ''There is a place on the Egg Harbor highway would often be fenced in so as to leave only a narrow passage 20 feet wide. This would be used as a dumping ground for stone. In winter these narrow alleys, walled in with rail fences, would completely fill up with snow.

The worst roads were in the southern part of the county. Here the deep clay soil and the negligence of the town authorities co-operated in producing a condition of the highways which the early travelers remember with grue. As the worst of these roads for thirty years until the railroad came was the main avenue of access to the county for mail and passengers it made an indelible impression on all who traveled it. In no other particular has Door County made such progress as in the change from those ancient execrable lanes of mud, corduroy and stone to our present smooth and firm macadam roads.

During those years, however, sufficient money was spent on those roads to have paved them with concrete from end to end. The trouble was that the money was practically all misspent. A considerable road tax was levied but it provided for paying this tax in labor. Each town was divided into a number of road districts in charge of an overseer. On a certain day the overseer would call out his men and nearly all would come, for the roadmaking days were about the only picnic and recreation days the old pioneers knew. Seating themselves comfortably in the shade of a tree an animated discussion would soon be in full swing, for all subjects were interesting on roadmaking days. The eccentricities of the weather would be fully elucidated and the condition of the crops would be diagnosed. The merits and faults of a new grain harvester would be made plain and a variety of remedies for blind staggers in horses would be compared. The various scandals of the town would be ventilated and information would be exchanged concerning rheumatism, boils and bunyons. When these and a hundred other topics were threshed out some energetic person would throw a couple of rails into the worst mudhole or snip off a hazel bush. This done the roadmakers would saunter homeward feeling that their obligations toward the roads had been adequately fulfilled for that year. Sometimes the pathmaster would.not even "go

Road north of the John Fehl farm, that is a terror to travelers, The water has been so deep there this spring that at times it covered the backs of the horses and flooded the boxes of vehicles. In going over this submerged piece of road Anton Seligath's wagon was capsized and the passengers came near drowning. Mr. Scligath jumped into the water which was up to his armpits and unhitched the horses which safely reached the shore. He then carried the passengers, one of which was a lady of no small weight, on his back to terra firma. If this thing continues it will pay somebody to establish a ferry at this place." Vol. 1 - 13

With such indifference to a public obligation it is no wonder that road making made slow progress. It was the same here as elsewhere. The roads were the first to go to pieces and the last to receive attention.

To Door County's honor, however, it can be said that this county was one of the first to wake up to a desire and active campaign for better things. In 1905 an era of good road building was inaugurated which has done more to put Door County on the map than anything else. Door County is now the foremost county in the state, regardless of population or wealth, in the number of miles of well paved roads. Door County now (in 1917) has 150 miles of macadam roads, many miles of which have been oiled and are as pleasant to travel on as on an asphalt street. This fine system of roads, running continuously from one end of the county to the other has been built without any bond issue and without a dollar of debts. The county is at present building about twenty miles of new macadam annually, In 1916 the Town of Gibraltar constructed five miles of macadam road besides building an expensive concrete bridge. In acknowledgment of this enterprise and public spirit the Wisconsin Highway Commission sent the chairman of the town a letter in which it states that "the Town of Gibraltar has built more miles of macadam this year than has been done by any town in the state in any year."

The following table gives the amount of money raised by each town and also the share paid by the county and the state for each year since the good roads movement began. The grand total shows that a total mileage of 125 miles has been built at a total cost of $230,080.52, while $37,736.42 has been spent in repairs and equipment. These totals do not include a considerable mileage of macadam built and paid for exclusively by the towns and known as town roads. Including these there are in Door County, not including the roads built in 1917, about one hundred and fifty miles of macadam roads built at a total expense of about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars.