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Sister 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 54234. The Survey maps it on the Sister Bay quadrangle. 1,148 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 620 feet above sea level.

Sister Bay within Door County

On record in Sister Bay

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Sister Bay grew from 876 to 1,148 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010876
20201,148+272 (+31%)

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.

The present settlements of Liberty Grove are largely outgrowths of the early Norwegian colony at Ephraim. The first settlers were originally members of this colony. Among them was John Thoreson; a Norwegian who settled at Little Sister Bay in 1854. He was for many years a prominent man in the town, was a political boss and had a pier over which he shipped much cordwood and other timber products. Another well known early Norwegian was Zacharias Morbek. He was a member of the original Norwegian Moravian colony which settled in Ephraim, was a man of some education and for some time held most of the town offices in the Town of Gibraltar. Later other candidates for political honors began to usurp what he considered his prerogatives. In disgust he complained that liberty was dying out in Gibraltar and in order that he might again have matters under his own hand he got a portion of Gibraltar set off in 1859 as a separate town. This he called Liberty Grove, meaning by that that liberty (the Morbek brand) had there found a home. For many years he was very successful and had the office of clerk, treasurer, assessor and justice of the peace.

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

The Swedish settlement lying between Sister Bay and Appleport is one of the prettiest farming sections in Door County. The land is gently rolling, comparatively free from stone and apparently very fertile. The improvements are substantial and neat. Altogether this little part of the county will compare favorably with any part of the state.

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

The history of the Swedish settlement begins with Gustav Carlson who in the fall of 1867 with a dozen other Swedes came to Ephraim to cut wood for John Anderson, a member of the Norwegian community at Ephraim. He lived within a mile of Sister Bay but at that time there was no business of any kind at Sister Bay. These thirteen Swedes the following winter all bunked in a shanty which stood on the land now owned by Charles Magnet. Gustav Carlson was far-sighted and bought a tract of land north of Sister Bay. However, he and the other twelve woodchoppers left Door County in spring and did not return for many years.

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 - it names this place 6 more 6 times.

Fires near this place

8 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Sister Bay between 1998 and 2020, burning about 94 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Debris and open burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Arson/incendiarism1

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
23 June 1998Debris and open burning88 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 May 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources170
15 April 2019Debris and open burning2.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources132
4 February 2019Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources44
19 February 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources64
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
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 Sister 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

11 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sister Bay in 11 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 4 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 waterspout, 1 lightning. 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
October 1997LightningSister Bay$1,000Lightning struck a business in Sister Bay, igniting a small fire. The strike also broke a water line, which may have put the fire out.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindSister Bay$1,000no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindSister Bay-Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Sister Bay. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
July 2023HailSister Bay-Penny size hail fell in Sister Bay.
October 2016HailSister Bay-Hail, as large as quarter size, fell about two miles east of Sister Bay.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindSister Bay-Thunderstorm winds downed some trees near Sister Bay.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindSister Bay-Several trees were uprooted.
June 2006HailSister Bay-no account filed
May 2002HailSister Bay-no account filed
July 2000WaterspoutSister Bay-no account filed
September 1999WaterspoutSister Bay-no account filed

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
Ephraim3.3 miles8
North Bay3.5 miles8
Rowleys Bay5.1 miles8
Ellison Bay5.3 miles8
Fish Creek7.8 miles8
Baileys Harbor8.4 miles8
Gills Rock8.8 miles8
Northport10.4 miles10

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 Sister BayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2780659The 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 1574209. 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.