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Rowleys Bay, Wisconsin

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Liberty Grove town. It lies in ZIP code area 54210. It stands on Mink River. The Survey maps it on the Sister Bay quadrangle.

Rowleys Bay within Door County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 8 printed sheets

Matched 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.

In the county-history sources

4,444 words on this township

History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917 names this settlement in its chapter on Liberty Grove Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

At Rowleys Bay, Daniel H. Rice started to get out cedar about 1857. He gave up the business soon which was later taken up by Osborne, Coxwell & Co. from Racine. They shipped a large amount of timber until 1876 when the lands, about four thousand acres, were bought by S. A. Rogers. He built a large mill there which is still in operation and is one of the oldest mills in the county.

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

Rowleys Bay, or rather Mink River, a sluggish stream emptying into it, bears evidence of having been a favorite camping place for Indians. Many relics and evidences of village sites have been found there. When D. H. Rice settled there in 1857 he found a large cross planted near the path which led across the peninsula at this point and he reported that the Indians showed adoration for the cross. This cross may signify that here had been a chapel established by the early French Jesuits or it may be the survival of a memento to mark the visit of a Jesuit missionary.

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 Liberty Grove Town.

Fires near this place

7 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Rowleys Bay between 1993 and 2020, burning about 4 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/undetermined3
Debris and open burning3
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
27 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources379
5 July 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources268
7 May 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources172
2 December 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources473
19 December 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources493
21 November 1993Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 January 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources10

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Door County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Rowleys Bay: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Door Pit NorthSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Door County

Storms near this place

1 since 2025

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rowleys Bay in 1 storm report in 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2025Thunderstorm WindRowleys Bay-Thunderstorm winds produced widespread tree damage in Newport State Park. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.

Every storm recorded in Door County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Ellison Bay3.1 miles8
Gills Rock4.9 miles8
Sister Bay5.1 miles8
North Bay5.7 miles8
Northport5.8 miles10
Ephraim8.3 miles8
Detroit Harbor11.0 miles10
Baileys Harbor11.7 miles8

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Rowleys BayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7372250The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1572692. 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.