BlockFish Creek, Wisconsin
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Gibraltar town. It lies in ZIP code area 54212. It stands on Fish Creek. The Survey maps it on the Ephraim quadrangle.
On record in Fish Creek
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 6 records
Chambers Island Lighthouselisted 1975
Church of the Atonementlisted 1985
Eagle Bluff Lighthouselisted 1970
Alexander Noble Houselisted 1996
Freeman and Jesse Thorp House and Cottageslisted 1997
Vorous General Storelisted 1997
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Escanaba quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Escanaba quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Escanaba quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Sister Bay quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Marinette quadrangle1:100000
- 1982 USGS Ephraim quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
4,644 words on this townshipHistory Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917 names this settlement in its chapter on Gibraltar Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Fish Creek was so named by Increase Claflin who settled there, as has been stated, in 1842. For a few years he and his family lived here in solitude, the only one on the peninsula north of Sturgeon Bay. In 1847 he was joined by Van Renssa- Jaer Marshall who with his two sons, William and Van Renssalaer Marshall, moved up from the Bay Settlement near Green Bay in 1847. The elder Marshall froze to death in November, 1862. He was returning from Ephraim to Fish Creek by boat and as night drew on he for some unknown reason anchored at Eagle Island which was then deserted. He wrapped up in his sail and laid down in his boat to sleep. During the night it turned very cold and the old man did not again wake up. There were no other settlers until Asa Thorp came a few years later and opened up the country by his pier.
Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.
Among the earliest to join the little settlement at Fish Creek, mostly as woodchoppers, were John and Stephen Norton. They came in 1857. In those days no saws were used in making cordwood. Yet some of these woodchoppers were able to put up three to four cords of wood per day with an axe. John and Steve Norton were great choppers, one winter putting up no less than 400 cords between them. The same year also came John Brown, the later sage of Fish Creek, Horace Poppleton, Michael F. Kalmbach and John Torrey. The latter had a house on the hill east of Fish Creek later known as the Barringer farm. He was a cooper. So were also Poppleton and Brown.
Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.
In 1856 a man by the name of Sweezey Burr came up from Sheboygan County to look for cheap farm lands for himself and his neighbor, David Graham. About 174 miles south of Fish Creek, on one of the highest elevations of the peninsula he found three forties which the surveyor by some mistake had listed as swamp lands. He therefore got this land for 50 cents per acre. Early the next spring his son, Enos Burr, moved up with his family and household goods and were landed at Baileys Harbor. There was no pier there then so they had to throw the oxen and cow into the water and swim them ashore. It was thereupon necessary for Burr to cut a meandering road across the peninsula for more than ten miles until he reached his claim where the Burr family has since resided.
Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Gibraltar Town - it names this place 16 more 16 times.
Fires near this place
5 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Fish Creek between 2018 and 2020, burning about 5 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 324 |
| 4 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 81 |
| 7 May 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 61 |
| 13 May 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 42 |
| 22 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 51 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Fish Creek: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jarman Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Door County Quarries | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fish Creek in 10 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | 1 hurt | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Lightning | Fish Creek | $433,700 | Lightning struck a home in Fish Creek around 2:30 pm CST. Every fire department in Door County, except Washington Island, helped fight the fire but the house and attached three-stall garage were a total loss. Three vintage automobiles were also destroyed by the fire. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Fish Creek. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| September 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Peninsula State Park. The time of this event is an estimate based on radar data. |
| April 2020 | Hail | Fish Creek | - | Penny size hail fell in Fish Creek. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees near Fish Creek. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | - | A thunderstorm produced a measured wind gust to 59 mph. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Fish Creek | - | Quarter size hail fell at Fish Creek. |
| September 1998 | Hail | Fish Creek | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fish Creek | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ephraim | 4.6 miles | 8 | |
| Egg Harbor | 6.2 miles | 8 | |
| Baileys Harbor | 7.8 miles | 8 | |
| Sister Bay | 7.8 miles | 8 | |
| North Bay | 8.8 miles | 8 | |
| Jacksonport | 10.8 miles | 7 | |
| Ellison Bay | 12.8 miles | 8 | |
| Rowleys Bay | 12.9 miles | 8 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1564983. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.